1. Vietnam – Japan PPH pilot program
The National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (NOIP) signed its first Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) agreement with the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) in October 2015, and the program has officially commenced since April 1, 2016.
Accordingly, an applicant can request the accelerated examination for his Vietnamese Patent application filed with the NOIP based on a corresponding JP Patent or a corresponding JP application having a Notice of intention to grant a patent issued by the JPO. The applicant will follow the procedure and requirements as regulated by this PPH program, and some important requirements that the applicant should note to let the application be examined according to the PPH request are:
- A request for substantive examination of the Vietnamese patent application must be filed with the NOIP before or simultaneously with the PPH request.
- The claims of the Vietnamese application must sufficiently correspond to one or more of those claims indicated as allowable/patentable in JPO. Accordingly, the applicant is advised to amend the Vietnamese claims in conformity with the claims of the Japanese application when filing the PPH request.
- The NOIP has not begun the substantive examination at the time of request for the PPH.
For the Procedures to file Request to NOIP for PPH, read more here.
2. Vietnam – Korea PPH pilot program
The NOIP signed an agreement with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) for a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program commencing on June 1, 2019.
Accordingly, an applicant can request the accelerated examination for his Vietnamese Patent application filed with the NOIP based on a corresponding KR Patent or a corresponding KR application having a Notice of intention to grant a patent issued by the KIPO. The applicant will follow the procedure and requirements as regulated by this PPH program, and some important requirements that the applicant should note to let the application be examined according to the PPH request are:
- A request for substantive examination of the Vietnamese patent application must be filed with the NOIP before or simultaneously with the PPH request.
- The claims of the Vietnamese application must sufficiently correspond to one or more of those claims indicated as allowable/patentable in KIPO. Accordingly, the applicant is advised to amend the Vietnamese claims in conformity with the claims of the Korean patent application when filing the PPH request.
(iii) The NOIP has not begun the substantive examination at the time of request for the PPH.
For the Procedures to file Request to NOIP for PPH, read more here.
3. Asean patent examination co-operation (ASPEC)
The ASEAN Patent Examination Co-operation (ASPEC) Programme is the first regional patent co-operation project. The programme commenced on June 15, 2009. ASPEC enables IP Offices from participating ASEAN member states (“AMS”) to utilise the search and examination (“S&E”) results from another participating AMS IP Office as a reference in its own S&E work.
There are 9 participating AMS IP Offices: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam.
An applicant can file a request under the ASPEC program in Vietnam if:
(i) A patent application in a participating AMS IP Office where the ASPEC Request Form is filed (“second IP Office”) must be a corresponding patent application of the other participating AMS IP Office (“first IP Office”).
(ii) The ASPEC Request must be supported by S&E documents of the corresponding application from the first IP Office.
(iii) All claims filed in subsequent IP Offices must sufficiently correspond to allowable/patentable claims referred to in the S&E documents from the other participating patent office.
For the Procedures to file Request to NOIP for ASPEC, read more here.
For further enquiries and information relating to the programs as mentioned above, please do not hesitate to contact us via winco@winco.vn; patent@winco.com.vn.
