Proposed Amendment In Intellectual Property (IP) Law For Protection Of Sound-Mark In Vietnam

Vietnam is proposing to amend In Intellectual Property (IP) law  For Protection to allow registration of sound mark, that is, sound acting as a trademark. A sound trademark, or sound mark, is a trademark where a unique sound performs the typical functions of a trademark – distinguishing the origin of a product or service.

The Vietnamese government has proposed a new legislation before the Vietnam National Assembly, that seeks to make certain amendments to the Vietnam Intellectual Property Law, and one key amendment proposed is the inclusion of sound mark as a trademark. Clause 1, Article 72 in the proposed amendments reads, “Trademarks are protected if the following conditions are met: “1. A sign that is visible in the form of letters, words, drawings, pictures, holograms or a combination thereof, represented by one or more colors; or a graphical representation of sound.”

It is to be noted that the amendment provides no definition of the term “sound mark” nor requirements for the graphical representation of a sound mark to be registered in Vietnam have been set. It is expected that Vietnam government would introduce in due course some specific regulation and guidelines for examining and registration of sound mark after approval of the proposed amendments by the National Assembly.

We’ll update once there is further developments in this regard.

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