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Vietnam Amends Intellectual Property Law: Key Changes for Businesses
Vietnam has recently approved major updates to its Intellectual Property Law. The reforms modernize the IP system for the digital economy and change how businesses protect, commercialize, and enforce IP assets in Vietnam.
On December 10, 2025, the National Assembly approved amendments to the Law on Intellectual Property, which are scheduled to take effect on April 1, 2026. These changes aim to align Vietnam’s intellectual property (IP) framework with its fast-growing digital economy and strengthen rights holders’ enforcement options, especially online.
The amendments are also set to enable faster and more predictable registration outcomes by shortening the publication, opposition, and examination stages of industrial property procedures and introducing a new fast-track mechanism for eligible patent and trademark applications. Innovators and product companies will benefit from broader industrial design protection, which will cover product parts and certain non-physical forms.
However, data and software-intensive models will need to adhere to guidelines on text/data use, including those related to artificial intelligence (AI).
What’s changing under the 2025 IP Law
Vietnam’s current IP regime is anchored in the 2005 Law on Intellectual Property (amended in 2009, 2019, and 2022). On December 10, 2025, Vietnam’s NA passed another amendment package, scheduled to take effect on April 1, 2026.
The country’s regulatory direction is to make industrial property more commercial and finance-ready. Its lawmakers focus on treating patents, trademarks, and other IP as enterprise “knowledge assets” that can be valued, traded, and used as collateral rather than as merely legal rights.
The new law, thus, responds to the digital economy by putting in place more practical measures to enhance protection on creativity. These include:
- Strengthening tools against online infringement;
- Clarifying intermediary responsibilities for platforms and service providers; and
- Accelerating registration procedures through shorter timelines and a fast-track mechanism for eligible patent and trademark applications.
Additionally, it begins to address questions related to AI applications. For instance, public summaries state that purely autonomous, AI-generated outputs are not eligible for copyright or patent protection and that protectability hinges on substantive human creative input.
|
Area of amendment |
What changed under the amended law |
What it means for businesses and investors |
|
Scope of protected industrial designs |
Industrial design protection is expanded to cover parts of products and non-physical or digital forms of products. |
Broader filing options for product-part designs and certain non-physical or digital product appearances. Companies should assess whether eligible digital appearances can be protected and align design filings with product launches. |
|
Patent examination timelines |
The timeframe for substantive patent examination is shortened, and the deadline for requesting examination is reduced. |
Faster patent grants improve time-to-market certainty and reduce delays in commercialization, licensing, and investment transactions. |
|
Publication and opposition procedures |
Time limits for publication and opposition of patents, trademarks, and industrial designs are reduced. |
Rights holders must monitor applications more closely, as opposition windows are shorter, while applicants benefit from quicker registration outcomes. |
|
Overlapping IP rights |
Courts are given clearer authority to resolve conflicts where the exercise of a later IP right interferes with the normal exploitation of an earlier right. |
Reduces legal uncertainty in portfolios with overlapping rights; strengthens the position of earlier right holders in disputes. |
|
AI and authorship/inventorship |
The amended law clarifies how IP protection applies to AI-assisted outputs, emphasizing that protection depends on identifiable human creative or inventive contribution. |
Businesses should Document human input and decision-making for AI-assisted works and inventions, and update internal policies and contracts on ownership, attribution, and clearance for AI-related outputs. |
|
Use of text and data for research and AI training |
Permits use of lawfully published, publicly accessible text and data (including AI training) for research and experimentation, subject to right-holder safeguards and forthcoming rules. |
Companies should confirm lawful access to training data, document data sources, and monitor forthcoming implementing guidance. |
|
Intermediary liability and safe-harbor rules |
The scope of intermediary service providers is clarified, and safe-harbor protection is expanded beyond copyright to broader IP objects, subject to compliance conditions. |
Online platforms and marketplaces face higher compliance expectations, including more robust notice-and-takedown and IP protection mechanisms. |
|
Online enforcement measures |
Authorities and courts may order blocking, disabling access, or removal of infringing online content, accounts, or services. |
Strengthens enforcement against online infringement and increases compliance risks for digital platforms and sellers. |
|
Damages and administrative sanctions |
The statutory cap on damages is increased where actual losses are difficult to prove, and administrative violations are broadened to include storage of counterfeit goods. |
Raises potential financial exposure in IP disputes and expands enforcement risk across supply chains, not just points of sale. |
|
IP as a commercial asset |
The amendments reaffirm that IP rights may be valued, transferred, contributed as capital, or used as collateral, subject to valuation rules. |
Enhances the role of IP in financing, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and investment structures, improving asset-based deal-making. |
|
Source: 2025 IP Law |
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Implications for business
The practical impact will be most significant for businesses with exposure to online distribution, marketplaces, and IP-intensive operations. Consumer-facing platforms, brand owners, and companies managing large IP portfolios should expect the most immediate compliance and monitoring adjustments.
For investors, the amendments underscore the significance of recognizing intellectual property as both an asset and an operational risk. Faster registration procedures may improve time-to-right assumptions, while stronger online remedies and expanded intermediary obligations can raise compliance costs and liability exposure for platform-based and technology-driven targets.
Compliance actions for IP stakeholders
Rights holders should review their filing and monitoring workflows to align with the updated timelines for publication, opposition, and examination. They should also reassess their design portfolio strategy as protection expands to product parts and certain digital and non-physical forms.
Online platforms should test whether notice-and-takedown procedures, repeat-infringer handling, and record retention meet the conditions attached to safe-harbor protection across IP objects.
Technology and AI-driven firms should strengthen data governance by confirming lawful access to datasets, documenting sources and permitted uses, and retaining evidence of human contribution where protection is claimed for AI-assisted outputs.
Key risks to watch
Content marked as “publicly accessible” may not be free to use. Public explanations of the amendments frame text-and-data use (including for AI training) as conditional and subject to safeguards for right holders, with further implementing rules expected.
It is important to note that safe-harbor protection is not automatic. The decision hinges on meeting technical and procedural requirements and responding appropriately to infringement notices.
Shorter timelines can increase the risk of timing issues. If publication or opposition windows are missed, disputes may be subject to higher enforcement costs at a later date.
Effective timeline and transitional phase
With the amendments set to take effect on April 1, 2026, businesses are advised to utilize the transition period to assess their IP filing pipelines and enforcement readiness, especially in view of the fact that the publication, opposition, and substantive examination timelines for key industrial property rights will be reduced.
For companies operating in digital and platform-based business models, the amendments also raise expectations around intermediary liability. Safe-harbor protection is expanded in scope but remains conditional on compliance with prescribed technical and procedural requirements, including the adoption of appropriate measures to prevent and address online IP infringement.
Takeaway
With the amended IP Law taking effect on April 1, 2026, businesses in Vietnam should consider the upcoming months as a compliance sprint. The amendments require businesses and investors to reevaluate their IP compliance frameworks, enhance platform and data governance controls, and incorporate expanded IP and intermediary risks into operational planning and transaction due diligence.
More details on implementation are expected before April 2026. Early preparation will reduce disruption and liability.
See also: Trademark in Vietnam: Tips for Avoiding Refusal and Protecting Your Brand
About Us
Vietnam Briefing is one of five regional publications under the Asia Briefing brand. It is supported by Dezan Shira & Associates, a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm that assists foreign investors throughout Asia, including through offices in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang in Vietnam. Dezan Shira & Associates also maintains offices or has alliance partners assisting foreign investors in China, Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Mongolia, Dubai (UAE), Japan, South Korea, Nepal, The Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Italy, Germany, Bangladesh, Australia, United States, and United Kingdom and Ireland.
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