KENFOX IP & Law Office > Our Practice (Page 24)

Patent opposition in Laos – What types of patent opposition procedure are available in Laos?

Download Laos operates a pre-grant opposition system which is available to both invention patent and utility innovation petit patent. Under Article 13 of Decision 1714/MOST, any interested party may oppose the grant of an invention (patent) or a utility innovation (petit patent) within 90 days of the application being officially published in the official gazette for the registration of industrial property. 1. Time-limit: You may file a Notice of Opposition to a patent or petty patent application in Laos within 90 (ninety) days from the publication date in the official gazette for the registration of industrial property. 2. Required documents: The documents shall be completed...

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Patent enforcement in Laos

Download 1. What are the most effective ways for a patent owner to enforce its rights in Laos? Generally, a patent infringement or disputes may be settled in Laos under 6 ways as provided under Article 127 of Lao IP Law as follows: Reconciliation; Mediation; Administrative remedies; Remedy through Economic Dispute Resolution Committee; Judicial actions to People’s Courts; International dispute settlement Reconciliation: In Laos, the parties may reconcile with regard to IPR violations. The agreement resulting from the reconciliation shall adhere to contracting principles as provided for in the Law on Contract and Tort. Mediation: In Laos, the parties may choose the mediation form...

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 Examination Of A Patent Application In Laos

Download An application for a patent or petit patent filed with DIP shall be subject to 2 phases of examination, i.e. formality and substantive examination. 1. Formality Examination of Patent Application In Laos /Formality Office Action: It takes 60 (sixty) days for the Department of Intellectual Property of Laos (DIP) to complete a formality examination of a patent application in Laos. In the course of formality examination, DIP’s examiner shall examine the completeness, accuracy and conformity with requirements as set forth in Article 31 of the Law on Intellectual Property. In case that the patent application is in conformity with the preliminary examination...

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Acceleration programmes to facilitate the granting of patent applications in Laos

Download Laos’s patent system is at primitive stage, with Lao IP Law No. 38/NA of 2017 and Decision No. 1714/MOST of 2020 on Patents and Petty Patents. However, in recent years, Lao has built a solid reputation for itself when making efforts to accelerate patent examination for patent application in Laos. A patent application in Laos can be accelerated in several ways as follows: 1. Accelerating patent examination by using the ASEAN Patent Examination Co-operation (ASPEC) ASEAN Patent Examination Co-operation (ASPEC) is the first regional patent work-sharing programme among 9 (nine) participating ASEAN Member States (AMS) IP Offices of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao...

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Patent and Petty Patent in Laos

Download Copyright © 2023 KENFOX All other rights are reserved. This document and its contents are made available on an "as is" basis, and all implied warranties are disclaimed. The contents of this document do not constitute, and should not be relied on as, legal advice. You should approach a legal professional if you require legal advice. Legal grounds: i. Lao IP Law No. 38/NA of 2017, which replaced the Law on Intellectual Property of 2011; ii. Decision No. 1714/MOST of 2020 on Patents and Petty Patents. International IP Agreements to which Laos is a Contracting Party Laos has been a Contracting Party to the Paris Convention...

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How to overcome Vietnam’s refusal of allegedly descriptive trademarks?

Numerous trademark applications in Vietnam are denied for the following reasons: The trademarks do not meet the protection requirement since they are regarded as descriptive of the goods/services in question. Trademarks that include only signs used in commerce to indicate the type, quality, quantity, intended use, value, place of origin, of the goods, or the time of manufacture, or signs that have become customary in Vietnam, are considered descriptive of certain properties or characteristics of the intended goods/services, and thus cannot perform the function of trademarks and are not protected....

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How did “DING TEA” milk tea win the brand battle in Cambodia?

Download 1. Cambodia is an emerging market that attracts substantial foreign investment in Southeast Asia. Every year, tens of thousands of trademark applications are filed directly in Cambodia or through the Madrid system, and millions of registered trademarks have been published in the national register. Therefore, securing a trademark registration in Cambodia is not a simple course of action, because it is very easy for a mark to be deemed confusingly similar to an earlier mark, not to mention the fact that many trademark applications may be rigidly refused by the examiner. Then, without the support of IP attorneys with extensive...

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Building up your brand in 20 years in Vietnam, but losing it in a few days. WHY?

Download In June 2022, Hoa Sen Co., Ltd., (HOA SEN) the owner of the "ZACOPE" trademark for pure drinking water products, complained to KENFOX IP & Law Office, "I don't understand why the company's sales in the first half of the year have dropped so drastically." HOA SEN did investigation and found that rivals utilized similar labels bearing the trademark "ZACOP." A check of the protection title, however, revealed that the registration of the trademark had expired. This occurs because the previous employee resigns and transfers the trademark to the new employee, who is unaware of the requirement to renew the...

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Three options to accelerate patent examination in Vietnam

The examination of a patent application's patentability in Vietnam is time-consuming. A typical examination would necessitate access to databases of prior art for novelty and inventiveness comparisons against what has already been disclosed or practiced. Despite recent advancements in conducting substantive examination for patent applications, the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (VNIPO) tends to grant patents based on the grant of the corresponding patent from countries with more developed IP systems or examination results of the corresponding patent application from more established Patent Offices such as those of the United States, Japan, South Korea, and the European Patent Office....

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Vietnam’s 2022 amended IP Law: What do new trademark provisions mean for your brand protection strategy?

Intellectual property is regarded as a company's most important and valuable asset. In particular, it cannot be denied that a trademark is the industrial property object with the highest commercial exploitation value. Numerous amendments and additions have been made to Vietnam's 2022 Intellectual Property Law in order to improve the effectiveness of the intellectual property protection mechanism and fulfill Vietnam's legal obligations under International intellectual property agreements to which Vietnam is a signatory, including CPTPP, EVFTA, and RCEP...

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