Amending and supplementing the Law of Insurance Business & Intellectual Property to comply with CPTPP

In order to implement the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), we need to proceed with amending and supplementing 8 laws, including the Law on Insurance Business and the Law on Intellectual Property, which have been passed by the National Assembly on June 14, 2019.

Amending and supplementing the Law on Insurance Business

1. Supplementing item 32a after item 32 Appendix 4 List of sectors and trades subject to conditional business investment of the Law on Investment No. 67/2014/QH13 amended and supplemented with a number of articles under Law No. 90/2015/QH13, Law No. 03/2016/QH14, Law No. 04/2017/QH14 and Law No. 28/2018/QH14 with the content: “Insurance auxiliary services include insurance advice, insurance risk assessment, insurance calculation, insurance loss assessment, insurance settlement assistance”.

2. Supplementing clauses 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26 to Article 3 to explain the terms:

• Insurance auxiliary service;
• Insurance consultancy;
• Insurance risk assessment;
• Insurance calculation;
• Inspection of insurance losses;
• Support for insurance compensation settlement;

3. Amending and supplementing regulations on issuing and guiding the implementation of legal documents on insurance support; supervision of provision of insurance auxiliary services (Clause 1 and Clause 4, Article 120)

4. Supplementing regulations on the right to join the professional social organizations of the insurance auxiliary service providers (Article 11).

5. Amending and supplementing regulations on the content of state management for insurance auxiliary activities (Revising Chapter IV name and adding Item 3 after Item 2 Chapter IV).

6. Supplementing Clause 9a, Article 124 of regulations on violations of the law on provision of insurance auxiliary services.

7. In order to create conditions for organizations and individuals operating in the insurance auxiliary business to have time to prepare to meet the conditions of providing insurance auxiliary services and ensuring the implementation of sanctions, Article 4 of the Law Amending on Insurance Business has stipulated transitional provisions: “Within 1 year since the effective date of this law, insurance auxiliary service providers must meet the conditions under this law. Otherwise the business will not be allowed to continue until the conditions are met”.

Amending and supplementing the Law on Intellectual Property

Regarding inventions, amending Clause 3 and Supplementing Clause 4 of Article 60 in the direction of giving a wider exception for application submitted into Vietnam (no limit on disclosure place and the grace period is 12 months from the date of disclosure).

Regarding geographical indications, amending Clauses 1 and 3 of Article 80 defining objects which is not protected as geographical indications.

Supplementing Article 120a in Section 4 Chapter VIII on recognition and protection of geographical indications according to international treaties.

Regarding trademarks, supplementing Clause 3 to Article 89 of the Intellectual Property Law stipulating that the application for registration of IP rights can be filed in written documents to the state management authority or by electronic form through online filing system.

Amending Clause 2, Article 136 on obligations to use trademarks;

Amending Clause 2, supplementing of Clause 3, Article 148 stipulating the validity of the agreement on industrial property licensing.

Regarding to Intellectual Property Protection Rights

Civil remedies:

Supplementing Clause 4 of Article 198 by which the court has the right to require the losing party to pay for the winning party to meet the obligations in Article 18.74.10 of the CPTPP Agreement, if the winner is defendant in the disputes;

Supplementing Clause 5 of Article 198 prescribing the compensation for damages caused by the abusing acts in the protection of industrial property procedures to meet obligations in Article 18.74.15 of the CPTPP Agreement.

Amending and supplementing Clause 1 of Article 205 on determining the rate of compensation in case the plaintiff succeeds in proving that an infringement of intellectual property rights has caused physical damages to him/her; in order to meet the obligations under Article 18.74.4 of the CPTPP Agreement.

Border controls:

Amending Clause 1 of Article 218 to meet the obligations prescribed in the Article 18.76.4 of the CPTPP Agreement, under which, the Customs Authority is obliged to provide information to intellectual property right holders within 30 days from the date of the Decision to apply administrative measures to deal with the counterfeiting of trademarks and goods.

The provisions of the amended law on Intellectual Property take effect from January 14, 2019 in the following cases:

a) Applications for registration of industrial property rights filed from January 14, 2019;

b) The request to cancel the validity of patents for invention, patents for utility solutions, geographical indication registration certificate which issued on the basis of application for registration of industrial property rights with the filing date from January 14, 2019;

c) The request for invalidation of a trademark registration certificate is carried out from January 14, 2019;

d) The lawsuits against infringement of intellectual property rights accepted by competent authorities from January 14, 2019;

e) Other requests on protection of intellectual property rights are made from January 14, 2019.

The inventions and geographical indications application submitted before January 14, 2019 will be continued to be handled according to the Law on Intellectual Property No. 50/2005/QH11, amending and supplementing according to the Law No. 36/2009/QH12.

The agreement on trademark licensing signed between the parties but not yet registered with the state management authority of industrial property rights before January 14, 2019 is only valid for the third party from January 14, 2019.

Law suites of infringement of intellectual property rights have been accepted by competent authorities before January 14, 2019 but have not been settled yet, will be continued to be settled according to the Law of Intellectual Property No. 50/2005/QH11, amending and supplementing according to the Law No. 36/2009/QH12.