US leads Vietnam in patent and trademark applications

The statistics suggest that although Vietnam’s economy has undergone rapid growth and a revolution in intellectual property rights and enforcement, this has largely created opportunities for large multinational companies and not domestic companies.

For the twelve month period, patent applications soared by 10% to 4,400 when compared to the prior year, however only an estimated 3% of the 1,500 patents that were issued were awarded to domestic companies.

“Many of the applications received from domestic companies were rejected immediately because on their face they were substantially incomplete and inaccurate,” said Nguyen Van, director of the NOIP.

Mr Nguyen Van added that as a rule, in order for domestic enterprises to be issued a patent the product must be complete, with high creativity and capable of industrial application.

The number of domestic companies applying for trademark protection was also inconsequential for the year according to the NOIP statistics.

Multinational companies based out of the US led the pack in trademark applications with 1,700 for the year, followed by those based in Japan (nearly 1,300), China (over 900) and the Republic of Korea (nearly 800).

(VOV)