Recent seminars in Da Nang highlight widespread errors causing mass rejections of industrial property applications in Vietnam, such as negligence in prior art searches and incorrect applicant identification. Experts from IP Vietnam urge enterprises and researchers to prioritize thorough searches and precise documentation to successfully navigate the rigorous intellectual property landscape.
DA NANG, Vietnam — Negligence in prior art searches, the use of vague terminology, and incorrect applicant identification are among the “classic errors” causing a mass rejection of industrial property applications by Vietnamese authorities, according to intellectual property experts.
Ms. Le Thi Thuc, Deputy Director of Da Nang Department of Science and Technology, delivers a speech at the seminar
These widespread filing deficiencies were thoroughly examined by officials from the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (IP Vietnam) during a recent seminar focused on improving the quality of industrial property registrations. The event, co-organized by the Da Nang Department of Science and Technology, drew substantial participation from local enterprises, startups, and academic institutions seeking to navigate an increasingly rigorous IP landscape.
📌 Critical flaws in patent applications
Analyzing a large volume of rejected dossiers, Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, Head of the Registration Division at IP Vietnam, pinpointed the primary cause as the misidentification of the rightful applicant.
Frequently, inventors submit applications under their personal names, despite the invention being the direct product of assigned corporate duties or utilizing the funding and physical facilities of an organization. This legal ambiguity often triggers ownership disputes, leading to immediate application rejections or the subsequent invalidation of granted patents.
Furthermore, applicants routinely fail to conduct adequate prior art searches before filing. Consequently, proposed solutions are often dismissed for lacking novelty and an inventive step, with many submissions representing merely trivial, mechanical improvements over pre-existing technologies.
Inadequate disclosure in patent descriptions remains another pervasive issue. Applicants often rely on ambiguous descriptors such as “almost,” “relatively,” or “highly effective,” while omitting crucial technical parameters and practical execution examples.
“A patent must be practically operable; it cannot exist solely in theory,” Hien stressed, noting that such theoretical submissions violate fundamental scientific standards.
📌 Trademark bottlenecks driven by search negligence
The trademark sector mirrors these procedural missteps. Vu Thi Phuong Giang, Head of Trademark Division No. 3, warned that the most significant error businesses make is selecting trademarks with inherently low distinctiveness.
Driven by a reluctance to conduct preliminary searches across IP Vietnam’s databases and the broader internet, numerous applications inadvertently conflict with pre-existing trademarks, geographical indications, or established organizational names.
Additionally, administrative errors occur with high frequency. These include missing transliterations, inaccurate color descriptions, and crucially, the incorrect classification of goods and services—a primary driver of processing bottlenecks and repeated dossier returns.
📌 Strategic pathways for successful filing
To mitigate financial losses and optimize processing times, IP Vietnam experts issued a definitive guideline for enterprises and research institutes: “Search first, file later, publish last.”
Applicants are urged to proactively evaluate the prior art landscape to assess patentability before committing financial resources. Maintaining absolute confidentiality of the technical solution until the formal filing date and meticulously reviewing ownership-related labor contracts are also deemed critical preventive steps.
For industrial property representation agencies, officials recommended adopting a strict operational ethos prioritizing sound advice, thorough searching, and high-quality drafting.
On the regulatory front, IP Vietnam has committed to refining current guidelines, enhancing internal training, and expanding digital patent databases and search tools to elevate the overall quality of substantive examinations.
The seminar concluded with a strategic imperative for the regional innovation ecosystem: “Robust research, early protection, and effective commercialization”—framing intellectual property not merely as a legal safeguard, but as the fundamental cornerstone of sustainable corporate competitiveness.
Source: Compiled
