Towards Hague design system adoption in Indonesia and Vietnam

Its been a long some coming but adoption of the Hague Agreement for design filing is now coming in SE Asia. The Hague international designs system allows for a single design application to be filed with WIPO for protection in multiple countries. Applicants must be from a contracting state. See here for the background. The ASEAN Economic Community has been hoping a number of members would follow its policy and join Hague. Singapore and Cambodia are already members. 

Indonesia plans to amend its designs law to implement Hague. The draft law is presently before Parliament, but the new parliamentary term will start soon, and a rescheduling will occur. Probably the law will pass in 2020. 

Vietnam has announced it too will adopt the Hague system. It filed its notice of accession last week. The IP law is undergoing amendment now.  Hague filings may begin to be accepted in 2020. 

VIetnam's IP law amendments

 

The fourth amendment to the IP laws of Vietnam came into force on 15th January this week. To do this Circular No. 16/2016 was issued in June 2016 by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) amending Circular No. 01/2007. This is the typical way that laws are amended in Vietnam by amendments to amendments.

 

Most of the changes relate to IP registration procedures at the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP). They inclide in relation to office actions, appeals, refusals, deadline compliance, PCT national phase entry, trademark disclaimers, Madrid based trademark procedures, definition of and specification for industrial designs.  

 

The new definition for designs is "A product being understood as an object, device, equipment, means, or part thereof for assembly or integration into a product, manufactured by any industrial or handicraft method, having a clear structure and function, circulated independently."