TRADE MINING LAW FOR INVESTMENT OF VIETNAM ENTERPRISES

by Apra Law

In the context of current international economic integration, improving competitiveness is especially important for our country’s enterprises, especially in competition in modern technology innovation through innovative technologies. intellectual property, including inventions. Therefore, the improvement, innovation as well as commercial exploitation of the invention need to be operated more efficiently.

Commercial exploitation of the invention

According to the provisions of the Law on Intellectual Property 2005 (amended and supplemented in 2009), an invention is a technical solution in the form of a product or process to solve a specified problem by applying the laws of nature. nature. An invention is a man-made product or process, not something that already exists in nature discovered by man.

Commercial Law 2005 stipulates: “Commercial activities are profitable activities, including purchase and sale, service provision, investment, trade promotion and other profitable activities”. To commercially exploit an invention, the invention must first be protected. If an invention is protected in the form of a patent, the invention needs to meet the following conditions: novelty, inventive step, and industrial applicability. Pursuant to the provisions of the 2017 Law on Technology Transfer, commercialization of scientific research and technological development results is the exploitation, completion, application, transfer and other activities related to technology. results of scientific research and technological development for the purpose of making profits.

Thus, Vietnam’s intellectual property law does not have specific provisions on the concept of commercial exploitation of inventions. However, based on the provisions of relevant laws mentioned above, it can be understood that commercial exploitation of an invention is an activity of exploiting commercial aspects of an invention after being protected through other forms of technology. forms such as the owner exploiting the invention by himself, transferring the ownership of the invention, licensing the patent use rights, the owner of the mortgage, contributing capital to do business, establishing an enterprise by public ownership. patents for the purpose of making a profit.

Commercial exploitation of inventions of Vietnamese enterprises in the context of international economic integration

International economic integration is the process of actively linking the economy and market of each country with the regional and world economy through efforts to liberalize and open up at the unilateral and bilateral levels. and multilateral. The context of international economic integration requires Vietnamese enterprises to constantly strive to innovate and improve their competitiveness through improving product quality, investing in modern technologies through research and development. and creativity to have many inventions to create quality products that are competitive enough in the Vietnamese and international markets and meet the requirements of integration.

According to statistics of the National Office of Intellectual Property, in 2019, Vietnam had 1,128 patent applications registered, an increase of 42% over the same period in 2018 (1). Some Vietnamese enterprises have recognized the role of patent protection and commercial exploitation. Many inventions are effectively exploited and achieve some results. For example, technological solutions “emission treatment equipment XLKT-HB0005GPCN” by Hoang Huu Binh, “equipment for recovery and recycling of hazardous waste in industry” by Tran Ba ​​Phuoc Anh, and “treatment machine” multi-purpose waste and waste treatment technology HKM” by inventor Ngo Thai Nguyen. These are typical inventions related to technology to treat exhaust gases, toxic industrial wastes and wastes that have been applied in practice (2).

Besides the achieved results, in fact stemming from many different reasons, the commercial exploitation of inventions of enterprises in our country is still limited. According to the National Intellectual Property Office’s annual report on intellectual property activities from 2015 to 2019, the number of contracts for licensing and transferring ownership of inventions is still very modest. slowly increased over the years.

In addition, some businesses are not aware of the important role of registration for the establishment and commercial exploitation of intellectual property rights in general and patent rights in particular. Enterprises have not exploited the invention effectively or did not exploit the invention. On the common ground, although there is no official statistics, but according to some scientists, in the field of technical invention alone, the number of inventions that can be put into practical application is only 10%- 20% of the total number of patents, the lower this rate corresponds to the higher-level topic, not to mention social science research, which is often very general and difficult to apply in practice (3).

Causes of limitations in commercial exploitation of inventions of Vietnamese enterprises

The reason for the above limitations is partly due to a number of legal provisions on commercial exploitation of inventions. Scientific and technological activities in production play an important role in the commercial exploitation of inventions, however, this activity has not been specifically mentioned in the law. In addition, the legal provisions on inventions in Vietnamese legal documents mainly refer to the protection of industrial property rights for inventions (4).

The law on intellectual property and technology transfer has provisions to encourage strong development of the technology market, promote technology incubation, and create conditions for patent owners to mortgage and contribute capital doing business with intellectual property, promoting the transfer of industrial property rights to inventions; However, the contribution of capital by intellectual property rights in general and inventions in particular requires the parties to have a clear and close agreement. Meanwhile, inventions belong to the category of assets that are difficult to accurately value. Therefore, the interests of the parties are not guaranteed and it is difficult in the event of a dispute. Meanwhile, Vietnam’s legal system on intellectual property valuation is still quite sketchy. The legal documents almost do not directly regulate the valuation of fixed assets, but only refer to the principled regulations on how to calculate the book-based calculation of intangible assets, which includes: intellectual property valuation (5).

The process of finalizing the Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Intellectual Property Law is an opportunity for the provisions of Vietnamese law on commercial exploitation of inventions to overcome the limitations mentioned above. above, especially in the context that Vietnamese businesses are trying to develop and integrate with the international economy./.

The article references the following sources:

(1) Intellectual Property Department, Ministry of Science and Technology, Annual Report on intellectual property activities in 2019;

(2) https://niptex.gov.vn/en/nam-2015/hang-2-2015/516-tong-hop-cac-giai-phap-cong-nghe-sang-che-giup-bao-ve-va-cai-thien-moi-truong;

(3) http://nld.com.vn/khoa-hoc/sang-che-chuyen-nghiep-xai-it–trum-men-nhieu-134073.htm;

(4) Le Duc Hien, Law on commercial exploitation of Vietnamese enterprises’ inventions in the context of international economic integration, Scientific Conference “Contemporary issues in the field of Economics, Law: From theory to practice”, Tra Vinh University, 2020;

(5) Le Duc Hien, Commercialization of industrial property rights to inventions in universities in Vietnam, Journal of Science, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, 2017.

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