Trademark Protection in Vietnam: File Before You Launch
Vietnam grants trademark rights to whoever files first. Why your company name protects nothing, what the examination timeline really looks like, Madrid versus a national filing, and the Vietnamese-language risks foreign brands miss.
The most expensive trademark mistake in Vietnam is not filing a weak application. It is launching first and filing second, and then discovering that somebody who saw your press release got to the registry before you did.
Vietnam is a first-to-file country. Rights in a trademark belong to whoever files first, not to whoever used the mark first. Years of trading under a name in Singapore, Seoul or San Francisco give you nothing in Hanoi except an argument you will have to pay lawyers to make.
Your company name is not a trademark
This is the misunderstanding we correct most often. Registering an enterprise and receiving an enterprise registration certificate gives you a trade name, and the trade name has to be distinguishable from other enterprise names in the national register. That is a company-law protection, administered by the business registration authority.
A trademark is a separate right, granted by the intellectual property office, covering the sign you put on goods and services in particular classes. Having a company called Northwind Vietnam Company Limited does not stop a competitor registering NORTHWIND as a trademark for the exact products you sell. The two registers do not talk to each other.
File before you announce
The sequence that keeps you safe is boring and effective:
- Search the register before you commit to a name, in the classes you will actually trade in.
- File the application, in your own name or your Vietnamese entity's name, before any public announcement, trade fair, distributor meeting or social media account.
- Only then announce, launch and start selling.
The filing date is what matters. Examination takes a long time, but the priority you are protecting is fixed the day the application is accepted, so an application pending for two years still defeats a squatter who filed a month after you.
What the timeline actually looks like
| Stage | What happens | What you should do |
|---|---|---|
| Formality examination | The office checks that the application is complete and properly classified | Respond quickly to any formality notice; delays here push everything back |
| Publication | The application is published in the industrial property gazette | Third parties can oppose from this point, so watch for oppositions |
| Substantive examination | The office assesses distinctiveness and conflicts with earlier marks | Budget for at least one office action and a written response |
| Grant and certificate | Fees are paid and the certificate issues | Record the mark with customs if you import or export branded goods |
| Renewal | Protection runs ten years from the filing date and renews in ten-year terms | Diarise the renewal; there is no reminder that reaches a foreign head office reliably |
The statutory periods and the real-world periods are not the same. Plan on the process taking considerably longer than the published timetable, and do not tie a product launch to a grant date.
The Madrid route versus a national filing
Vietnam is a member of the Madrid system, so you can designate Vietnam through an international registration based on your home mark. That is efficient if you are filing in many countries at once and your home registration is stable.
A direct national filing is usually better when Vietnam is a priority market, because you control the specification of goods and services precisely, you deal with local examiners through a local representative from day one, and you are not exposed to central attack on the basic registration in the first five years. Companies that treat Vietnam as one line in a fifty-country Madrid designation often end up refiling nationally anyway after an objection.
Practical takeaway. Decide the route by how much Vietnam matters, not by what is cheapest per country. If Vietnam is in your top three Asian markets, file nationally and file properly.
Vietnamese-language and transliteration risks
A Latin-script mark does not automatically stop a similar mark in Vietnamese. Two extra checks are worth the money:
- Meaning. Does the mark mean something in Vietnamese, or sound close to something unfortunate? This is a marketing question with a legal tail, because a descriptive or misleading meaning can also affect distinctiveness.
- Phonetic equivalents. Vietnamese consumers will transliterate a foreign brand in speech and in writing. If that transliteration will become the name people actually use, it deserves its own application.
Beyond the trademark: the rest of the brand
Protecting the word mark is the first step, not the whole job. Depending on your business, also consider the logo as a separate figurative mark, industrial designs for product shape and packaging, and copyright registration for creative assets. Register the .vn and .com.vn domains at the same time as the trademark application, because domain allocation is first come, first served and a domain dispute is slower than a domain registration.
If you will license the brand to a distributor or a manufacturing partner, the licence terms and the recordal position need to be settled before the relationship starts, not when it ends. A distributor holding an unrecorded licence and an unregistered mark is the classic way brands lose control of their own name in a market.
Non-use is a real risk
A registration that sits unused is vulnerable. After a sustained period of non-use, a third party can apply to cancel the mark. That matters for defensive filings in classes you do not trade in yet: register what you will genuinely use, keep evidence of use from the first sale, and review the portfolio when the business changes shape.
If someone has already filed your mark
It happens, and it is not automatically fatal. The options depend on the facts: opposition or cancellation on grounds of bad faith, evidence that your mark was well known in Vietnam before the filing, negotiation and purchase, or a coexistence arrangement with a narrowed specification. All of them are slower and more expensive than having filed first.
What to do this quarter
List the marks you actually use: word mark, logo, product names, taglines. Identify the classes that match what you sell and what you plan to sell in three years. Run a clearance search. File. Diarise the deadlines. Then launch.
Entering Vietnam and need the brand secured first? Our market entry team coordinates trademark clearance and filing alongside the entity setup, so the application is in before the announcement goes out.
