DECISION

APPROVAL FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY STRATEGY BY 2030 

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of Government dated June 19, 2015;

Pursuant to the Law on Intellectual Property dated November 29, 2005 and the Law on amendments to certain articles of the Law on Intellectual Property dated June 19, 2009;

At the request of the Minister of Science and Technology;

HEREBY DECIDES:

Article 1. The Intellectual Property Strategy by 2030 (hereinafter referred to as “IP Strategy”) is hereby approved with the following primary contents:

I. VIEWPOINTS

1. Develop an intellectual property (IP) system that is synchronous and efficient in all steps, including creation, establishment, exploitation and protection, exercise of intellectual property rights (IPR), to create an environment for innovations, meet international integration requirements and use IP as an important tool not only to improve the national competitiveness but also contribute to economic, cultural and social development.

2. IP policies on copyright, related rights, industrial property rights and plant variety rights must be considered as an internal part of national economic, cultural and social development strategies and policies, and of sectoral development strategies and policies.

3. IP activities are performed with the active participation by all entities, including research institutes, universities, individuals performing innovations and especially enterprises that shall play the leading role in creating and exploiting IP assets.

II. OBJECTIVES

1. By 2030, Vietnam is expected to become one of leading ASEAN countries in creation, protection and exploitation of IPR.

2. Establishment of industrial property rights and plant variety rights should be made in a rapid, transparent and impartial manner to meet the needs of enterprises and the society.

The effectiveness of enforcement of the Law on intellectual property is markedly improved and the IP infringement has decreased significantly.

4. New IP assets of Vietnamese individuals and organizations will increase in both quantity and quality; IP indicators of Vietnam in the Global Innovation Index (GII) will substantially increase. To be specific:

a) Patent filings and grants are expected to grow by an average of 16 - 18% per year;

b) The number of applications for industrial designs is expected to grow by an average of 6 - 8% per year;

c) The number of trademark applications is expected to grow by an average of 8 - 10% per year;

d) The number of applications for plant variety protection is expected to grow by an average of 12 - 14% per year, of which the number of applications filed abroad will be accounted for 10 - 12%; Vietnam is expected to become a Center for plant variety protection by means of establishing a plant variety protection organization in the ASEAN+ region.

5. Use or implementation of IP will be more effective and the quantity of IP-intensive products will increase significantly. To be specific:

a) Exploitation and commercialization of IP assets will be emphasized and promoted; 8 - 10% of patented inventions will be commercially exploited; at least 1 – 2 protected plant varieties will be exploited abroad; the number of enterprises effectively using IP tools in their business will increase significantly;

b) A number of IP-intensive industries will be developed, especially targeted and competitively advantaged industries which are expected to grow rapidly and contribute to GDP growth;

c) Geographical indications, genetic resources, traditional knowledge, know-how and folklore will be protected and effectively exploited in business;

d) Cultural industries will be developed based on the copyright and related rights in order to create more and more diversified and high-quality creative works; the revenue from the copyright and related rights-based cultural industries by 2030 is expected to contribute about 7% to GDP and create more jobs.

III. TASKS AND SOLUTIONS

1. Improve policies and laws on IP

a) Enhance the conformity of policies and laws on IP with policies and laws on economic – social industries/sectors;

b) Include policies and solutions for promoting creation, establishment, exploitation and protection of IPR in strategies and policies for scientific and technological development, and innovation, national economic, cultural and social development policies, and sectoral development policies;

c) Review and improve IP legal framework and relevant laws to create a legal environment convenient for creation, exploitation and protection of IPR, balance interests between entities in the society and effectively prevent the misuse of IPR with attaching a special importance to the following:

- Properly handle the relationship between patent protection and protection of interests of the public, especially in the fields of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals; promulgate appropriate regulations so that the people and other entities in the society may punctually access essential products and services in public health-related fields such as healthcare and nutrition or in other emergencies;

- Properly handle the benefits-related relationship between providers of biological resources, breeding facilities, producers and traders with paying attention to protection of legitimate rights and benefits of farmers;

- Develop a mechanism for equitable distribution of profits between entities involved in the commercialization of the rights to own, use and benefit from IP assets, especially those created from state-funded scientific research and technological development activities;

- Ensure effective and transparent operations of collective management organizations of copyright and related rights in order to protect legitimate interests of authors and encourage the creation of works;

- Access updated IP issues concerning modern trends in science and technology from the Fourth Industrial Revolution in order to propose appropriate amendments to laws;

- Ensure measures for protecting IPR in conformity with the civil nature of IPR;

- Study and propose sanctions against IP infringement which should be strong enough to deter the IP infringement and focus on prevention of counterfeit products;

- Facilitate import and export, and encourage foreign investment and technology transfer.

d) Improve regulations and laws on IP assets-related transactions, including capital contribution, secured transactions, valuation, accounting and auditing of IP assets; promulgate mechanisms and policies on financing, credit and other incentives to promote the exploitation of IP assets created from state-funded scientific research and technological development activities.

2. Improve effectiveness and efficiency of state management of IP

a) Strengthen regulatory authorities in charge of IP management in a constructive and efficient manner; determine and strengthen contact points in charge of IP of relevant central and local-government regulatory authorities; promote interdisciplinary cooperation mechanism for state management of IP;

b) Innovate the operating mechanism of authorities in charge of establishment of industrial property rights and plant variety rights in an effective manner that must be conformable with the reality and the change from fee mechanism to price mechanism in rendering public services;

c) Intensify the macro-management of IP assets by means of:

- Using IP measuring indicators as a management tool, especially those of the Global Innovation Index (GII) and Global Competitiveness Index (GCI);

- Building and perfecting IP measuring indicators in strategies and plans for social and economic development, science and technology, and innovation;

- Studying and proposing the inclusion of IP assets-related indicators in the lists of national and sectoral statistical indicators.

d) Simplify and modernize administrative procedures and formalities for IP which should be open and transparent;

dd) Improve quality of public services in the IP field; promote private sector involvement and public-private collaboration in rendering IP-related services;

e) Make a comprehensive provision of online public services and digitalize IP data; intensify investment and development of infrastructure as well as application of new technologies to the establishment, exploitation and protection of IPR;

g) Establish a system of IP database facilitating a synchronous connection between regulatory authorities.

3. Promote and enhance the efficiency of the exercise of IPR

a) Review and assign specific functions and duties, gradually downsize contact points of authorities competent to impose administrative penalties for IP infringement;

b) Intensify the cooperation among administrative authorities and between them and judicial agencies in protecting IPR; cooperate in doing research on strengthening the role of courts in handling IP cases;  

c) Intensify inspection, control and action against IP infringement, especially those committed in the digital environment;

d) Improve the efficiency of measures for controlling IP-related imports and exports;

dd) Take the initiative in detecting, preventing and combating IP crimes; enhance the efficiency of the investigation into IP criminal cases;  

e) Encourage the settlement of IP disputes in the form of arbitration or conciliation;

g) Encourage enterprises, organizations and individuals to take actions for protecting their IPR;

h) Intensify training courses in IP knowledge and skills for persons in charge of IPR protection tasks;  

i) Combine the private sector involvement and improvement of quality of judicial assistance in the field of IP; develop a network of IP assessors; promote the development of IP assessment services and IP legal counseling services.

4. Promote the creation of IP assets

a) Establish and provide IP information tools and services, and technology maps to research institutes, universities and enterprises; establish organizations providing patent analysis and technology forecasting services to orient science, technology and innovation activities;

b) Use IP measuring indicators as the basis for evaluating performance of research institutes, universities and enterprises. Research institutes and universities shall determine subjects requiring IPR from findings from state-funded researches.  Engineering and technological universities shall carry out procedures for application for protection of subjects of industrial property rights and rights over new plant varieties and publish scientific papers of highly applied research findings;

c) Formulate and implement science and technology programs and assist research institutes and universities in cooperating with enterprises to create research findings with protected IPR, including the use of IP tools for developing key industries/fields, competitively advantaged products and services, and creating source and core technologies;

d) Promote the establishment of innovation centers in combination with venture capital forms so as to incubate and create IP assets from the stage of idea creation, research and development of IP assets to the stage of trial production and establishment of startups; assist startups in developing technologies and creating high value-added products and services;

dd) Effectively implement the mechanism for encouraging the participation of individuals in technological innovation and cultural creation;

e) Instruct enterprises to establish and effectively exploit commercial indications for their products and services; assist the application for protection of potential geographical indications.

5. Encourage and improve efficiency of exploitation of IP assets

a) Establish and develop the network of technology transfer and IP centers at research institutes, universities and enterprises with the aim of promoting the creation and exploitation of IP assets;

b) Establish startup ecosystems in universities.  Assist research institutes and universities in establishing enterprises exploiting IPR to shorten the process of application of research findings to business and production;

c) Intensify mechanism and policies for development of IP-intensive industries in order to create reliable and quality products and promote the export of IP-intensive products;

d) Instruct and assist enterprises in promoting the use of IP tools in their business; assist Vietnamese individuals and enterprises in protecting and exploiting IPR abroad;

dd) Develop a strong IP asset market with the aims of expanding and enhancing quality of intermediary services for intensifying the connection between supply and demand for IP assets; promote the assessment and valuation of IP assets which shall be used as the basis for conducting transactions on the market;  

e) Intensify the exploitation and analysis of patent information to serve the selection and application of suitable technologies; encourage the application of technologies whose patents have expired or which are not yet granted patents in Vietnam but are suitable for production capacity of domestic enterprises;

g) Promote the exploitation and use of creative products which are the subjects of the copyright or related rights whose protection period has expired or owned by the State;

h) Intensify the effective management and use of geographical indications, genetic resources, traditional knowledge, know-how and folklore in order to exploit the potentiality of advantaged products of Vietnam;

i) Effectively implement supporting programs for small and medium-sized enterprises in exploitation of IP assets.

6. Develop IP assistance activities

a) Expand and improve quality of services rendered by professional consulting organizations, attach special importance to the development of IP consulting centers at research institutes and universities;

b) Promote the development of IP assistance services and improve quality of IP services;

c) Improve operational efficiency of associations in assistance and implementation of creative activities, establishment, exploitation and protection of IPR;

d) Increase capacity and investment in material facilities for improving operational efficiency of collective management organizations of copyright and related rights, meeting social needs and ensuring equitable benefits of related parties;

dd) Mobilize social resources for developing an IP system for providing resources for the State, and encourage non-government organizations to  perform non-business IP activities;

e) Establish criteria for standardization of IP services; perfect the system for management and supervision of IP services, especially intermediary services.

7. Mobilize resources for IP activities

a) Formulate an IP resource development master plan, in which the training for highly skilled human resources shall be given a special importance; attract domestic and foreign highly-skilled human resources to perform IP activities;  

b) Focus on training in operational skills and improving quality of human resources of regulatory authorities and IPR protection organizations;

c) Establish some IP training institutions that shall provide suitable training programs for each group of trainees, especially training courses for IP asset management specialists for enterprises.

8. Develop an IP culture

a) Disseminate information on mass media with the aims of raising awareness about IP and encourage innovation; develop an awareness of respecting and protecting IPR, and build an IP culture;

b) Formulate and implement IP training programs in training and education institutions, especially higher education institutions.

9. Take the initiative in international integration and cooperation in the IP field

a) Promote international integration and cooperation in the IP field, take the full advantage of assistance from foreign IP organizations and international organizations in order to promptly improve the capacity of the national IP system and keep pace with the international IP development and levels;

b) Enter into international conventions on IP in conformity with the actual conditions and development of Vietnam; participate in the compilation of IPR protection standards under the framework of international conventions;

c) Take the initiative in participating in IP programs launched by international organizations.

Article 2. Implementation organization

1. The Ministry of Science and Technology shall:

- Act as a contact point for summarizing the implementation of the IP Strategy and submit annual reports thereof to the Prime Minister; prepare preliminary report on the implementation of the IP Strategy by 2025 and determine prioritized tasks and projects in the next period;

- Implement tasks, solutions and/or projects relating to the IP field.

2. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism shall implement tasks, solutions and/or projects relating to copyright, related rights and cultural industries.

3. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall implement tasks, solutions and/or projects relating to IP regarding new plant varieties and agriculture.

4. The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Education and Training shall, within the ambit of their assigned functions, duties and powers, provide specific guidance on and organize the implementation of relevant tasks, solutions and projects of the IP Strategy.

5. The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall balance and allocate funding for the IP Strategy in accordance with regulations of law.

6. Ministries, ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies and People's Committees of provinces and central-affiliated cities shall promote the compliance with regulations on IP within the ambit of their assigned functions and duties.

7. Relevant ministries and regulatory authorities shall, within the ambit of their assigned functions and duties, organize the implementation of the IP Strategy in accordance with regulations of law.

8. People's Committees of provinces and central-affiliated cities shall organize the implementation of the IP Strategy which should be in line with the implementation of local social – economic development plans.

Article 3. This Decision comes into force from the day on which it is signed. 

Article 4. Ministers, heads of ministerial agencies, heads of Governmental agencies, Chairpersons of People’s Committees of provinces and central-affiliated cities and relevant organizations and individuals are responsible for the implementation of this Decision./.

APPENDIX

LIST OF TASKS AND PROJECTS OF THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY STRATEGY BY 2030 GIVEN PRIORITY IN THE PERIOD BY 2025

(Enclosed with the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 1068/QD-TTg dated August 22, 2019)