“Industrial Design” means the exterior appearance of a product represented in shape, lines, colours or any combination thereof. A Patent for Industrial Design shall be granted for any industrial design which is new, creative and industrially applicable. Industrial design protection is not available for the designs that serve solely to obtain a technical result, that are of buildings and that are of products which are invisible when used.

Industrial design application requires the following documents and information:

• A signed Power of Attorney from the Applicant duly affixed with its seal (if any) (click here to download form). No notarization and/or legalization are required;
• 6 sets of photos/drawings comprising of front, top, bottom, left, right, back and perspective views. They shall be in the same scale with dimensions not less than 90 mm x 120 mm and not exceeding 190 mm x 277 mm;
• A copy of the description of the design showing its novelty and a prior art;
• Full name and address, and nationality of the designer(s) and of the applicant.

In case the right of priority is claimed:

• Information regarding the filing date, application number, name of country of the priority application;
• A copy of the priority application duly certified by the Office receiving the priority application and the sworn English translation in the case the priority application is not in English (required within three (3) months from the filing date);
• The Deed of Assignment of the Priority Right signed by each party duly affixed with their seal (if any), or its notarized copy, where the Applicant is different from the Applicant of the Priority Application (required within three (3)     months from the filing date).

A Deed of Assignment from the Designer(s) to the Applicant (if the Designer(s) and the Applicant are not the same) is not required. However, the Vietnam Patent and Trademark Office has the right to request the Applicant to submit this document in the case where it has reasons to suspect the Applicant’s eligibility.

The design application shall be examined as to form, published for opposition and examined as to substance.

The formal examination shall be completed within one month from the filing. If the application is found acceptable as to form, a Decision on Acceptance of Application as to Form shall be issued.

If the application is found not acceptable as to form, the Office will send to the applicant a Notice of Results of Formal Examination advising of the reasons, and the applicant shall have a period of one month to reply or amend his application.

If the design application is accepted as to form, within two months from the date of accepting, it shall be published in the Official Gazette of Industrial Property. As from the date of publication up until prior to the date of issuance of a decision granting a design patent, any organization or individual shall have the right to express a written opinion to the Office regarding the right to register, the priority right, protection criteria or other matters relating to the design application.

The design application after being accepted as to form shall be examined as to substance. The time-limit for the examination as to substance shall be seven (7) months from the date of publication of the design application for opposition.

After examining the design application as to substance, the Office issues a Notice of Results of the Design Application Examination notifying the applicant of whether the design is patentable or it is unpatentable.

The design patent is effected on the granting date and expires after 5 years from the filing date, and can be renewable for two consecutive terms of 5 years each.

Vintell Patent & Trademark Company provide clients with a full range of design patent services, including searching, filing, prosecution of design applications, appeals, licensing and assignments, and enforcing design patents through negotiation and litigation.