Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology issues Circular 23/2023/TT-BKHCN
29 December 2023
The circular outlines regulations for several provisions of the country’s amended intellectual property law, which took effect on January 1, 2023. It also provides measures for implementing Decree No. 65/2023/ND-CP. Issued by the government on August 23, 2023, the decree provides guidance on implementing the IP law on industrial property, protection of industrial property rights, rights to plant varieties and management of industrial property.
Circular 23/2023/TT-BKHCN contains the following: changes related to the invalidation of protection titles, procedures related to “Opposition to an industrial property registration application,” the use of foreign examination results (including invention search reports, invention examination reports and granted patents) for corresponding applications, among others.
Nguyen Tuan Hung, Senior Associate, Aliat Legal, Ho Chi Minh
“Circular No. 23/2023/TT-BKHCN introduces industrial property objects to be considered invalid, including ‘Industrial property objects contrary to social ethics, public order, harmful to national defense and security’ as one of the grounds for determining the invalidity of an application. Patent applications filed contrary to regulations on security control for inventions when registered abroad are also considered invalid applications,” added Nguyen Tuan Hung, senior associate at Aliat Legal in Ho Chi Minh.
It has six chapters and 48 articles, including a separate article related to the explanation of terms used in the circular. According to Nguyen, this is a new feature in the structure of the circular. “Specifically, Article 3 refers to ‘people with an average level of knowledge in the respective field’ (the person skilled in the art is aware of what was common general knowledge in the art). This makes it convenient to refer to this term in the circular,” explained Nguyen.
Circular 23/2023/TT-BKHCN took effect on November 30, 2023 – the same day it was issued.
- Espie Angelica A. de Leon
