Vietnam streamlines copyright rules with new legislation
Vietnam has introduced new copyright legislation today, with one practitioner in the region saying it is intended to simplify the country’s provisions relating to copyright applications.
Speaking to WIPR, Son Doan, an IP attorney practising in the Vietnam office of IP Max, explained that Decree 22/2018/ND-CP includes a number of measures for implementing and supplementing the country’s IP laws. It replaces Decree 100/2006/ND-CP (as amended by Decree 85/2011/ND-CP).
According to local news site Vietnam Net a key objective of the new decree is to facilitate the implementation of Vietnam’s IP laws. Three new articles in the decree are hoped to generate favourable conditions for those applying for copyright.
Doan said that from today, only the Copyright Office of Vietnam has the competence to receive copyright and related right registration applications. Previously, provincial departments of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism were also working as receiving offices.
Another change hoped to simplify the process for applicants centres on timescale. Under Decree 100 there was no time limit on how long the authorities would take to return paperwork to applicants seeking the reissuance, amendment, or revocation of copyright.
However, the timescale will now be limited to seven, twelve, or fifteen working days from the date of receiving the request, depending on the particular case, Doan explained.
He said another “significant change” introduced by the new decree will make it easier for rights owners to “track and chase” users of their works for royalty collection, something that has been challenging in the past.
The new legislation stipulates that “the burden of searching and contacting has been shifted to the users” and, if they cannot reach the rights owners, they must notify them, Doan said.
However, he added that the necessary timing of the contact is “unclear”, rendering this obligation somewhat “limited”.
Doan said the new decree also fixes a “former incoherence between the regulatory and legislative provisions” by allowing the revocation of a copyright certificate in instances where a third party has discovered that the grant of that certificate is “contrary to the law”.
In addition it widens the pool of people entitled to provide copyright consultancy, according to Doan. He said that previously, those wishing to provide assistance had to be Vietnamese, live in the country and have a university degree.
Under the new decree all enterprises operating according to the relevant legal provisions can provide copyright consultancy, with the exception of foreign-owned law firms, Doan explained.
Vietnam Net reported that Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism will be running training workshops centring on the new decree; the first one is scheduled to take place tomorrow, April 11, in Hanoi.
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