Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2020 submitted by VN/IP Viet Nam

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Where URLs are requested below, it is preferred that either URLs which are likely to remain stable over time (three years or more) are provided, or home (main) page URLs are provided with a short explanation of how to access the corresponding information.

The expression "industrial designs" covers industrial designs and models.

Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in this series of Annual Technical Reports.

I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of industrial design information activities and expected time frames for their realization

As the first year of implementing the IP Strategy to 2030,  IP Viet Nam has submitted the Plan of the Ministry of Science and Technology on the implementation of the IP Strategy to 2030 for the Minister of Science and Technology’s approval (Decision No. 508/QD-BKHCN dated March 24, 2020) as well as guided ministries, branches and localities to organize the implementation of the Strategy. The implementation of the Strategy is carried out in the form of promulgating the Strategy Implementation Plan or integrating it into relevant policies, programs and plans for the development of related sectors.

Despite being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the international integration and cooperation activities on IP in 2020 were still actively implemented, which brought an important contribution in maintaining cooperation activities on successfully negotiating international agreements, including the RCEP Agreement and the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UKVFTA). In particular, in the framework of the tasks of the ASEAN Chairmanship year 2020, IP Viet Nam organized 03 virtual sessions of the ASEAN IP Working Group (AWGIPC) and successfully assumed the task of AWGIPC Chairman for the 2019-2021 term.

New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies(plans) mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks

To meet the increasing needs of protecting IP rights of organizations and individuals, IP Viet Nam is enhancing the application of information technology, deploying the construction of the Online Public Service at level 4 according to the plan of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Government's requirements in administrative procedure reform.

The Industrial Property Automation System (WIPO IPAS) under the framework of the Agreement between IP Viet Nam and WIPO has been implemented. By the end of 2020, both sides had completed the construction of two modules on designs and patents/utility models. It is expected to deploy the module on trademark in 2021.

Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants (registrations) with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes

- The number of designs applications in 2020 was 3213, which marked a decrease of 7,96% compared to 2019 (3491 applications);

- The number of granted designs registration in 2020 was 2066, which marked a considerable decrease of 4,88% compared to 2019 (2172 registrations).

Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.

(Official portal of IP Viet Nam): http://ipvietnam.gov.vn/

(Annual report of IP Viet Nam): http://ipvietnam.gov.vn/en_VN/web/guest/bao-cao-hang-nam

(Monthly Gazette of IP Viet Nam): http://ipvietnam.gov.vn/web/guest/cong-bao-so-huu-cong-nghiep1

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs

Information on how to apply the patent/utility model application and other documents is available on the following website:

https://www.ipvietnam.gov.vn/vi_VN/web/guest/kieu-dang-cong-nghiep

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

Online public service portal of IP Viet Nam: http://dvctt.noip.gov.vn:8888/HomePage.do

Classification and reclassification activities; classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification

+ Using the Locarno classification and an additional classification system of Viet Nam established based on Locarno;

+ All design applications are classified according to the Locarno classification system to the subheading. After the application is published, it is unable to reclassify.

III. SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Statistics of applications/registrations of provinces and cities of Vietnam

Statistics of data related to the number of design applications/granted registrations of Vietnam's provinces and cities are monthly published.

More information at: http://ipvietnam.gov.vn/web/guest/so-lieu-thong-ke

Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.

The Industrial Property Official Gazette’s purpose is to publish information related to industrial property objects registered in Vietnam, and is published periodically on the 25th of every month. Currently, the Official Gazette is only published as an electronic file (PDF), with only a limited number of prints in paper available for depository purposes.

More information at: http://ipvietnam.gov.vn/web/guest/so-lieu-thong-ke

Annual Report

The IP Viet Nam's annual report was made with the first publication in 2005 and has been published annually from 2007 to present. Currently, the annual report is published in two forms: a paper publication (with limited quantity) and an electronic publication.

Information about the electronic publication of the annual report can be viewed at: 

http://ipvietnam.gov.vn/web/guest/bao-cao-hang-nam

List of monthly published patent/utility model registrations:

The granted patent/utility model registrations have been monthly published from January 1, 2019 to present on the Portal of IP Viet Nam in the form of a list and attached electronic file (PDF) of the full text of granted patent/utility model registrations.

More information at:

http://www.ipvietnam.gov.vn/bang-oc-quyen-sang-che/giai-phap-huu-ich-uoc-cap-hang-thang

Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)

- The IP-Lib is a digital library of industrial property subject matters filed before IP Vietnam.  The database of IP-Lib is bibliographic data on published patent/utility model, trademark, industrial design  applications and registrations in Viet Nam. Currently, the IP-Lib has stopped updating data since March 2020 to convert all data to WIPO Publish.

More information at: http://iplib.noip.gov.vn/

- Digipat is a digital library of granted patent/utility model registrations of Viet Nam. The database of Digipat is bibliographic and full-text data of granted patent/utility model registrations of Viet Nam up to present. Currently, Digipat has stopped updating data since January 2019 to convert all data to WIPO Publish.    

More information at: http://digipat.noip.gov.vn/

- WIPO Publish is a digital library of industrial property of Viet Nam supported by WIPO to replace IP-Lib and Digipat. Currently, the databases of these above-mentioned databases have been converted and integrated into WIPO Publish’s database.

More information at: http://wipopublish.noip.gov.vn/

IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements

Industrial Property Administration System (IPAS)

This is a software system developed by JICA from 2000-2004. This system has been modified and upgraded by IP Viet Nam over time to serve professional work. Currently, the IPAS system is still working to serve the trademark application.

For some work requirements that the IPAS system could not meet, IP Viet Nam had developed its own software which combines many manual operations. Due to the use of applications based on old technology which cannot work with current hardwares and operating systems, IP Viet Nam faces difficulties in upgrading IT infrastructure. Many operations such as automatic collection of charges and fees, automatic data entry, remote working, etc. have not yet been widely applied.

Industrial Property Administration System (WIPO IPAS)

Is a software system funded by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) through an ODA project between WIPO and IP Viet Nam. The project has been approved by the Minister of Science and Technology for implementation from 2020 to June 2022.

Searching System IPSEA

The IPSEA system was built in 2007 (product of Japanese ODA project Phase II), currently the system encounters many errors, takes a lot of effort to update data synchronously, does not meet the needs of examiners. The IPSEARCH search system has completely replaced IPSEA for searching and examining applications for trademark.

Searching System IPSEARCH

This is a search system developed by IP Viet Nam itself, with the application of Search engine technology (Solr) for quick results with superior search features, closely connected with the administration system. IPSEARCH was put into use from May 2019 and by May 2021, it had served well the Trademark examination units (with 1.8 million orders, 1.1 million references taken from the system) contributing to improving the results and processing trademark applications in the past period.

Research System WIPO PUBLISH

As a result of the WIPO IPAS project, WIPO Publish uses Solr search engine to connect the WIPO IPAS database, serving the search for Patents/Utility Solutions, Industrial Designs.

Software on Statistic

They include Week Report and periodical reporting tools. Due to the characteristics of the industrial property field, it is necessary to have a lot of statistical reports to serve the relevant units, to serve the management and direction of IP Viet Nam’s leadership, to serve the statistics of the application processing norms of each examiner and the calculation of the monthly income for staffs.

Other Software

Most software is self-developed by the IT Center to serve the arising work requirements of the units in the Office.

Digital libraries IP-Lib and WIPO Publish

The searching system for published applications IPLIB put into use since 2007 and is still in operation, however the system has many errors due to old technology. Currently, IP Viet Nam has launched another system, namely WIPO Publish, to serve the public.

Portal of IP Viet Nam

The Bureau developed the Portal in 2018 and it is working well now.

Online Public Service Portal

Currently, IP Viet Nam is exploiting the system as a result of the pilot development of the IT Center with partners. This public service system reaches level 3 which can satisfy 35 public services. The system runs unstable, often crashes during peak hours with huge number of accessions. Currently, IP Viet Nam is investing in the construction of "the online receiving application system Level 4 ". The new system is expected to replace the level 3 system by the end of 2021.

Management System on Executive Documents

IP Viet Nam is running a trial of the document management software, which officially operated and integrated with the document management system of the Ministry since July 2021.

Virtual Conference System

The Department has deployed a Video conference system.

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

The system is using network infrastructure applications: DNS, DHCP, AD, Web, etc. to serve professional tasks such as: Archiving bibliographic database of patents, utility solutions, industrial designs, trademarks, international marks, geographical indications and other objects; Archiving scanned images and documents of all the above-mentioned objects; Archiving data of email; Archiving the contents of the website; Archiving the contents of the digital library page on industrial property, etc. Almost all the important data of a National IP Office in general is being archived in servers located in the Office's server room. Currently, the IP Viet Nam is using the backup data center service outside its headquarters (Viettel CHT Data Center, located at Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park) to back up important data and exploit some recovery applications to serve the public.

Most of the servers have been invested since 2005-2012 (under Phase 2 of the ODA project with Japan and the IP Viet Nam's project). In 2018-2019, IP Viet Nam purchased additional replacements for 07 servers. Currently, the server system is located in 6 Rack cabinets, which are servers of Fujitsu, Dell, HP, IBM. The external storage system has HPMSA 2000G2 with a capacity of 24x300GB.

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

Applications filed in Vietnam are digitized and stored in the IP Viet Nam's application administration system.

Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)

Currently, IP Viet Nam is using 02 management systems in parallel:

- The IPAS (old) management system has been built and operated by JPO support since 1999. Currently, this system has transferred all data of patents and industrial designs to the new single management system, and it is continuing to operate for trademark module as the trademark module is now built on the new system.

- The IPAS management system (new) is provided free of charge by WIPO and has been built since 2019. The goal is to replace the old single administration system. Up to now, basically, 02 modules on patents and industrial designs have been built and put into operation, the remaining trademark module will be deployed at the end of 2021. After the project is completed, the new single management system will completely replace the old single management system.

V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION

Office's library (if deals with industrial design information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries

IP Viet Nam has 01 Library at its Headquarters. The library has the function of receiving readers to research, study and find out information on intellectual property.

Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.

IP Viet Nam built and developed the TISC (Technology and Innovation Support Center) and IP-HUB (Hub and Spoke Project supported by WIPO) networks, which include following steps:

  1. Building the Network's Website:

- Completing the construction of TISC and IP-HUB pages which are attached on IP Viet Nam's website at: http://ipvietnam.gov.vn/web/guest/mang-luoi-tisc-va -ip-hub

  1. Creating a set of manuals with the cooperation of WIPO and local experts

iii. Capacity building training for network members according to training modules:

- Planning to deploy 11-15 training modules which focused on patent filing skills and technology transfer contracts. But it was postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic’s impact.

  1. Consulting on filing patent applications to institutes/universities member:

- Conducted online and offline consultations to major members such as Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi University of Pharmacy, University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City, FPT Corporation, Viettel Group, Vietnam Academy of Forestry Science; Foreign Trade University; Electricity University.

- Basically completed the Study on developing software to support on drafting patent applications and implemented test at some units.

  1. Organizing national and international Workshops related to TISC and IP-HUB networks:

- Sent delegates to attend online training courses related to TISC and IP-HUB networks organized by WIPO.

Education and training: training courses, e learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.

IP Viet Nam organized on-site training courses for external individuals and businesses who have needs in order to improve their understanding and capacity on IP and supports and guides on how to search as well as on how to carry out the procedures for filing an application for IP registration.

Moreover, IP Viet Nam also cooperated with universities to organize internships for students of universities such as Hanoi Law University, Foreign Trade University, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, National Economics University, etc. to assist students in having more intuitive access to industrial property information.

In addition, in 2020, IP Viet Nam also organized an intensive training course on intellectual property (6 months) for individuals in need, organized exams and issued certificates. The certificate of this training course is also one of necessary conditions for individuals to be able to participate in the exam for certification of  IP attorney issued by IP Viet Nam.

VI.INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION

International exchange of industrial design information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)

Exchanging data with WIPO, ASEAN PATENTSCOPE, JPO, ASEAN TMVIEW, ASEAN DESGINVIEW including published industrial property applications with exchange frequency of once a month.

Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to industrial design information

- IP Viet Nam has been updating design database to integrate into the search tools ASEAN DesignView serving the design registration.

- In the framework of cooperation between IP Viet Nam and EUIPO, IP Viet Nam will integrate DesignView database of IP Viet Nam and EU’s system. However, this cooperation field is now at technical level discussion.

- IP Viet Nam cooperates with JPO on exchange of industrial property information.

- IP Viet Nam cooperates with WIPO in the "Deployment of the WIPO IPAS system at IP Viet Nam" Project

- IP Viet Nam cooperates with WIPO in the "Digitalization of industrial property Documents of IP Viet Nam" Project.

VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

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