After reading some information on social networks about the fact that the trademark may expire if not renewed on time, the owner of a food production facility in Hanoi began to worry. He said that he had registered the trademark many years ago and thought that as soon as a certificate is issued, the protection right will be maintained. He wondered if he forgot to renew or did not carry out procedures to maintain it on time, would he lose the protection validity?
Meanwhile, a representative of a mechanical equipment manufacturing enterprise in Bac Ninh said that the unit had been granted a certificate of protection for a technical improvement in production but did not clearly understand the regulations on the protection period and procedures for maintaining validity.
These are also common questions of many businesses and business households that own trademarks, inventions, useful solutions or industrial designs.
Answering this issue, the Ministry of Science and Technology said that the owner may lose protection validity if they do not carry out procedures to maintain or extend the protection certificate according to the prescribed time limit.
According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, a patent is valid from the date of issuance and lasts for up to 20 years from the date of application or international application. The protection validity needs to be maintained annually.
Patents on utility solutions are valid from the date of issuance and last for up to 10 years from the date of application or international application. The protection validity also needs to be maintained annually.
For industrial design patents, the certificate is valid from the date of issuance to the end of 5 years from the date of application. The owner can extend it 2 consecutive times, each time for 5 years. In case the industrial design has multiple options, the extension can be implemented for all or some options, in which there must be a basic option.
The trademark registration certificate is valid from the date of issuance to the end of 10 years from the date of application. The owner can extend it many consecutive times, each time for 10 years for the entire or part of the list of goods and services.
According to regulations, to maintain the validity of a protection certificate, within 6 months before the expiration of the validity period, the owner of the certificate must submit a validity maintenance request. Delayed submission is still accepted but not more than 6 months from the date of expiration of the validity period. At that time, the owner must pay an additional late validity maintenance fee.
The dossier requesting maintenance of validity includes a declaration form according to the prescribed form, a power of attorney in case of submission through a representative, a copy of the fee and charge payment documents and related documents if necessary.
The Ministry of Science and Technology said that the appraisal period is 1 month from the date of submitting the application. The result may be a notice recognizing the maintenance of the validity of the protection certificate and published in the Industrial Property Notice or a decision refusing to maintain the validity of the protection certificate.
