Researching for amending regulations on intellectual property right protection

Customs officials of Saigon port area 3 inspect imported goods. Photo: Thu Hòa

The development of this draft Circular is in the key task program of the General Department of Vietnam Customs in 2019. Accordingly, these important contents that are expected to be put into the draft, will regulate specific rights and duties of regulated organizations and individuals; jurisdictions and responsibilities of Customs authority.

The Draft also stipulated specifically about receiving, processing the proposal for inspection, monitoring import – export goods required for intellectual property right protection (including: regulation about submission of request letter for inspection and supervision; checking and processing dossiers of request for inspection and supervision; time limit for application of inspection and supervision measures; cases of refusal to receive dossiers of request for inspection and supervision ...).

At the same time, regulating the receiving and handling of requests for suspension implementation of customs procedures and procedures for suspension of customs procedures; customs inspection and supervision of exported and imported goods infringing upon intellectual property rights and counterfeit goods; customs inspection for counterfeit goods, goods infringing intellectual property rights ...

Recently, a number of Customs units have reflected difficulties during the implementation of the Circular 13/2015/TT-BTC.

Specifically, according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 10 of Circular 13/2015/TT-BTC, the time limit for suspension of customs procedures is 10 days from the date the customs authority issues a decision for suspension and extending not more than 10 working days from the date of extension decision issuance. In the case of requiring an expert’s appraisal or professional advice from state management authorities in charge of intellectual property, the customs authority would continue to suspend customs procedures until receiving the assessment results or professional opinion.

Besides that, the local customs authorities also reflected the need of having specific regulations for cases where trademarks have been registered for protection but it is in the state of dispute settlement, intellectual property division...

Regarding to the protection of intellectual property rights at the border, in 2018, this issue was directed closely in order to prevent the production and import of counterfeit goods and infringing intellectual property rights for import – export goods. Therefore, the effectiveness of the enforcement of intellectual property rights at the border of the Customs is significantly improved.

Through monitoring, the number of applications for customs inspection and supervision for goods requiring intellectual property rights protection increased rapidly in terms of quantity (in 2018 the number of accepted applications and dossiers for Intellectual property rights protection was 188), thereby it has confirmed that the protection of intellectual property rights at the border has been implemented transparently, smoothly and effectively by the Customs authorities.