Procedures for patent registration

1. Reasons patent registration is necessary

• Prove the legal ownership (who is the owner) of the invention when there is a dispute related to ownership.

• Prevent any infringement of intellectual property rights when any party shows signs of infringement.

• Be protected by law against infringements of 3rd parties.

• Associate with other parties to apply inventions to produce products to benefit from business.

• Permitting another party to use the invention for production on the basis of a fee for use.

2. Applications for patent registration 

- An invention registration declaration is made according to the form issued by the National Office of Intellectual Property.

- Authorization letter.

- A description of the invention/utility solution, including the name of the invention/utility solution, description, illustrative examples, claims and abstracts.

- Illustrations (if any).

- A copy of the priority application document certified by the authority where the priority application is filed (only required for applications for priority right under the Paris Convention). This document can be supplemented within 03 months from the date of application.

- For PCT applications filed in Vietnam, in addition to the above documents, the following documents are required: Publication of PCT application, International Preliminary Test Report (PCT/IPER/409) (if any), Notice of changes related to the application (PCT/IB/306) (if any), Report of International Search Results (PCT/ISA/210)… For this case, there is may supplement the original of the Power of Attorney within a period of 34 months from the priority date. Information to be provided:

• Full name, address and nationality of the applicant.

• Full name, address and nationality of the inventor/utility solution author.

• The name of the invention/utility solution.

• Priority application number, priority date and priority country of the application (in case the application has a priority right).

The number of the international application and the publication number of the international application (in the case of a PCT application filed in Vietnam).

3. Procedures for Patent Registration 

- Step 1: Look up patents before filing

You should look up your patent before you apply. The search results will help the client to determine whether the invention intended to be registered or intended to be used is registrable and conflicts with the intellectual property rights of others.

- Step 2: Prepare documents for patent registration

After the results of the patent search are available, the application owner needs to prepare the patent application file to file the patent application. Patent registration documents have been consulted in detail in the article.

- Step 3: Submit an application to the National Office of Intellectual Property

After preparing the patent application, customers should submit the application as soon as possible to have the earliest priority date for registration. In Vietnam, the priority date principle is applied, so whoever applies first will get the first priority.

- Step 4: Examine the patent application at the National Office of Intellectual Property

After being filed, an invention registration application will go through the stages of formal examination, publication of the application, and substantive examination of the application before the National Office of Intellectual Property agrees or refuses to grant an exclusive registration certificate invent.

- Step 5: Get a certificate of patent protection

After the application has gone through the evaluation stages and the results show that the application is eligible to be granted a protection title, the application owner will pay the title fee and will be issued the original certificate by the NOIP.

After being granted a patent registration certificate, the patent owner will have to pay a patent maintenance fee at the National Office of Intellectual Property. If for some reason the maintenance fee is not paid, the patent will be terminated.

Above is the entire process and procedures for patent registration. Organizations and individuals need to understand and understand the above process to protect the results of their labor process, avoid being copied and plagiarized causing damage to the business.