Vietnam IP Office to loosen document signatory requirement
21 Jul 2021
Vietnam
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On 14 July 2021, the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (“IPO Vietnam”) issued notice No. 6959/TB-SHTT (“Notice 6959”) regarding the capacity of signatories of IP owners in connection with documents presented to the IPO Vietnam. In particular, according to Notice 6959, the IPO Vietnam has loosened their strict requirements on the capacity of signatories of IP owners, which had been tightened according to notice No. 13822/TB-SHTT (“Notice 13822”) issued on 23 November 2020.
Earlier, in November 2020, the IPO Vietnam issued controversial Notice 13822, which tightened requirements on signatories of representatives when signing documents submitted to the IPO Vietnam (e.g., Powers of Attorney, trademark agreements, declarations, etc.). According to Notice 13822, in a case where IP owners are corporations, the signatories of documents submitted to the IPO Vietnam had to be senior executives of the corporations such as general directors, the chairmen of the board, or the president. If the documents were signed by other signatories, the documents had to be legalized, or the applicants were required to submit other documents to prove the signing capacity of the signatories. Notice 13822 was considered an unfortunate development as it made the authentication process challenging and complex, as well as time-consuming. Further, it also increased the amount of paperwork/documentation involved with prosecuting trademarks in Vietnam.
After considering opinions from IP owners and agents from around the world, as well as input from international IP associations, IPO Vietnam agreed to modify the requirements of Notice 13822. According to Notice 6959, in the case where signatories of documents submitted to the IPO Vietnam are not general directors or other senior executives, there is now no need to prove the signing capacity of the signatories, and the IP owners will take full responsibility and liability for the truthfulness and the validity of the documents.
The modification of the signatory requirement is a positive development as it helps reduce the paperwork/documentation required for the trademark prosecution process in Vietnam and, importantly, makes the signatory process aligned with the signatory processes in other trademark offices around the world.
