How do I know if something is copyrighted, such as a name or word? What should I know about copyright law?

As the other answers already noted, neither names nor words can be copyrighted. A copyright protects art displays, performances and written works (this extends to modern technology such as websites, illustrations, television and film).

Copyright in Vietnam 

The protection of words, marks and names is done with registered trademarks. Just like the official copyright symbol is a “C” inside a circle, the registered trademark symbol is the letter “R” inside of a circle. The TM for trademark and SM for service mark are not recognized by the patent trademarks and copyright office. Some states may recognize them, but they are the weakest form of protection.

You should also know that you are not prohibited from using trademark names in your own works, but you must not represent yourself as the trademark holder or imply that your product is the trademarked product. This is why restaurants are so quick to note that they serve Coke or Pepsi products if you order a brand name drink which they do not serve. (As an ironic aside. The concession for Hartsfield Atlanta Airport is held by PepsiCo, in Coca-Cola’s home city.)

There is a lot more to know about trademarks and copyrights. If you are a graphic artist, the handbooks from the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and the Graphic Artists Guild (GAG) are excellent references on this topic. I’m certain there are similar resources for writers, other artists and businesses. My advice is to find a good reference and to read it very very carefully and after you have read the basics, if there is anything that you don’t understand or that still puzzles you about your project, consult an intellectual property attorney before you make a very costly mistake.

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What is copyright and plagiarism, and how does the law/system regarding this work?

Copyrightis the exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, or to make derivative works, and to authorize others to do the same. Copyright infringement is illegal in most countries.

The details copyright infringement laws vary from country to country, but in the United States, the legal penalties for copyright infringement that the infringer pays the actual dollar amount of damages and profits. If the work was registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, the law provides a range from $200 to $150,000 in statutory damages for each work infringed, as well as the infringer paying for all attorneys fees and court costs.

Plagiarism is the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own. Plagiarism is usually considered an ethical breech of conduct rather than a criminal or civil offense, unless one also commits copyright infringement when plagiarizing.

However, it is possible to plagiarize someone without infringing their copyright, if that person gives you permission to copy their work and publish it under your own name. It is also possible to infringe someone’s copyright without committing plagiarism by copying someone else’s work without their permission but crediting them as the creator of that work.

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How do I know if something is copyrighted, such as a name or word? What should I know about copyright law?

Copyright is the exclusive legal right, given to a creator to copy, print, publish, perform, film, record, or make derivative works of their creative work, and to authorize others to do the same. This prevents other people from using someone else’s creative work (novel, poem, play, song, photograph, painting, movie, software) without compensating them for the creator’s effort.

Copyright in Vietnam

The United States and some other countries do recognize cases where you can use someone else’s copyrighted work without their permission for limited purposes. This is Fair use, permitting you to use a minimal portion of their work for such transformational purposes as criticism, news, education, research, and parody, such that you are not harming the market for the original work. An example of Fair Use is showing a short clip of a movie during a movie review, or showing a photograph of a painting in a news report about the painting being auctioned for a record amount.

Note that words, names, and titles are not protected by copyright. After all, it would not be to anyone’s benefit if you were not legally allowed to say someone else’s name. write down a word they made up, or display the title of a book without their creator’s permission.

However, words, names and short phrases (as well as logos) can be protected as trademarks used to identify commercial products and services — such as “McDonald’s” restaurants and “Nike” shoes — and you cannot use someone else’s trademark for a competitive product or service. This is to prevent consumers from being confused about who actually made that product or performs that service. You can find out whether someone has registered a word, phrase or logo as a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office through this government website: Search trademark database. However, to be safe, you should have a trademark attorney search for you, as some people may be using a trademark without registering it with the USPTO.

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ANT Lawyers Joined with International Law Firms in Hong Kong on Dec 7th, 2018

In order to meet the legal demand arising from oversea investors, ANT Lawyers representative, Managing Partner Mr Tuan Nguyen has signed cooperation agreement with other international law firms in Hong Kong on Dec 7th, 2018 to provide legal support and service across numerous countries.

The lawyers are from Hong Kong SAR, the United Kingdom, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, Macau, China (Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu) have met up and discussed cooperation plan. The cooperation is expected create a platform for communication and cooperation to provide legal support and services to global enterprises, optimizing the business environment, promoting interconnection, investment and trade cooperation. At the formal event, the eleven representatives of the participated international law firm signed the Memorandum of Understanding, and promised to strengthen legal cooperation and exchanges in policy analysis, legal research, and legal services to provide comprehensive services for investors.

The cooperation signing ceremony was participated by the representatives of Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (“HKSAR”) and the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the governors, members and other professionals to witness this important moment. Ms. Tan Huizhu – Deputy Director of the Basic Law Committee of the HKSAR; GBM, GBS, JP and Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress – Mr. Tan Yaozong; GBM, GBS, JP and Vice Minister Vice Minister of Legal Department of Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the HKSAR – Mr. Liu Chunhua attended the ceremony as guest.

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How do you go about getting a patent and trademark?

A trademark is registered at the Trademark Office in the country(ies) you want are currently doing business in or selling product in. You have to already be using that name or logo in “trade”, and then you can register it.

Trademark Lawyers in Vietnam

While it is possible to do this yourself, it really is best done through a lawyer who has experience in this. It is not unusual for lawyers to just offer a flat rate for the process, on a per-country basis.

Patents are another thing altogether. They are ridiculously difficult to file and to respond to all of the questions and concerns that come back from the Patent Office before your application is approved. For that matter, your application has to have engineering diagrams and descriptions of sufficient detail that someone else in your field would be able to build a prototype of your design.

You need a specialist lawyer, a patent attorney. Unless you actually are a patent lawyer, there is no way you would be able to succeed at getting a patent approved doing this by yourself.

ANT Lawyers is supported by a team of experienced patent, copyright, design attorneys, trademark lawyers in Vietnam with qualification and skills handling full range of legal services relating to intellectual property in Vietnam.  We have specialized in the preparation and registration of patents, trademarks and designs for our clients.

We are representing and advising clients being multinationals, inventors, global partner law firms serving their clients in IP works in Vietnam.

Let ANT Lawyers help your business in Vietnam.

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How much is a trademark and how does it work?

The trademark symbol ™ can be used by anyone to identify a word, words, or symbol used to identify their business, product or services. There is no requirement to use the ™ symbol and their use has no legal significance, but it is wise to do so. When you use the ™ you notify the public of your claim of branding rights in a particular mark and in turn dissuade others from adopting the same or similar mark for the same or similar products or services. This staves off unwitting trademark infringement.

Register trademark in Vietnam

However, the registered trademark symbol ® may only be used by the owner of a mark following registration with the relevant national authority, such as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and you can find the latest fee information here: View Fee Schedule: Trademark Fee Information.

Here are some reasons the USPTO gives for registering your trademark:

constructive notice to the public of the registrant's claim of ownership of the mark;

a legal presumption of the registrant's ownership of the mark and the registrant's exclusive right to use the mark nationwide on or in connection with the goods and/or services listed in the registration;

the ability to bring an action concerning the mark in federal court;

the use of the U.S registration as a basis to obtain registration in foreign countries; and

the ability to file the U.S. registration with the U.S. Customs Service to prevent importation of infringing foreign goods.

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What are the risks of using a trademarked brand name in a domain name?

Having a trademark brand in your domain name is a risk. If the domain was registered before the trademark was, then your registrar may stand behind you and will not immediately transfer the domain to the company which is complaining about trademark infringement. In this case, you may ask for a monetary compensation before transferring domain ownership, though you should have a lawyer look at your case.

However, if your domain name was registered more recently than the trademark registration date, then the company holding the trademark may ask your domain registrar to transfer the domain ownership to them. The registrar will most likely comply, looking to avoid complications. In western countries, trademark infringement is a very serious legal violation.

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How can you buy someone else's trademark?

Mr. Sivochek’s answer is correct and I have little to add. You cannot buy just the trademark registration in the U.S.; you must by the whole business and goodwill associated with the mark that is registered. Naturally, that business must still be functioning and the mark still in use in U.S. Commerce as well. Anything less, and you are buying just the piece of paper that comprises the registration certificate and therefore little, if anything, should be paid for that.

Register trademark in Vietnam

I suppose that if the business is not operating any longer and a valid US registration exists that you want to acquire or would register yourself (i.e. it recites goods/services that appropriately describes your business), that registration could have some “nuisance value” in terms of being desirable just to avoid a likelihood of confusion refusal by the USPTO in your application. So if you were to “buy” a registration certificate like that for a mark that may not be in use, label the transaction accordingly and pay the appropriate corresponding amount. In other words, don’t buy the “mark” or trademark right that is not affixed to an ongoing business because that could be a transfer of a mark “en grosse” which would invalidate the mark and the registration.

If you don’t follow this, or if you think it is complicated, I would say that it is and you should work with a U.S. trademark attorney on this.

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The Regulations on Mediation in the Draft of Law on Mediation, and Dialogue in Vietnam

Over the past few years, the civil cases or administrative claims have been increasing on quantity as well as complex nature. There are opinions that, in reality, while Western countries choose negotiation or mediation as the first measure of dispute settlement, court is favored in Vietnam as main measure of dispute resolutionin Vietnam. Theoretically, Vietnam legal system shows that the regulations on mediation, dialogue have been relatively formulated during the judicial reform process. To address the gap in reality, there are recent changes in regulations encouraging parties to use mediation and dialogue as dispute resolution. Recently, the Draft Law on Mediation, Dialogue at the Court has been published since 01 October 2018 for public opinions.

Organization of CourtAnnexed Mediation and Dialogue in Vietnam

In order to implement mediation and dialogue at court, the Chief Justice of People’s Supreme Court issues the decision on establishing Mediation and Dialogue Center including Director, Deputy Director(s), Mediators. The Director is the head of Center appointed by one of two following measures: (1) the Chief Justice of the Court in the locality where the Center is located assigns the Judge to act according to the rotational regime; or (2) the Mediators elect among themselves. Human resources are mobilized to appoint Mediators selected from the followings: (1) retired Judges, Procurators, Investigators and other retired judicial officials; (2) Retired junior or senior officials; (3) Experts and other professionals with at least 10 years of experience in its work; and (4) Person with high prestige in society and satisfying the following standards:

– Being a Vietnamese citizen, residing in Vietnam, loyal to the Fatherland and the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, having good moral qualities, having strong political will and prestige in the community, honest, objective;

– Having good health to ensure the fulfillment of the assigned tasks;

– Having experience and capacity for mediation and dialogue;

– Volunteer for mediation, dialogue settlement.

In the situation of tight state budget and overload of work at Court, the mobilization of human resources not belonging to the State but meeting certain criteria for being Mediators is one of the necessary requirements to ensure the success of this regulation.

Scope of Court Annexed Mediation and Dialogue in Vietnam

Scope of mediation and dialogue under the provision of this Draft shall be applicable to civil and administrative disputes; request for recognition of voluntary divorces, child custody agreement, division of property upon divorce within the jurisdiction of the Court according to the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code, Law on Administrative Procedures or civil, administrative dispute requested by one or more parties to the Court annexed mediation and dialogue for settlement.

The Procedures for Court Annexed Mediation and Dialogue in Vietnam

Upon receipt of the lawsuit petition, petition for recognition of voluntary divorces, child custody agreement, division of property upon divorce as provided in Article 190 of the Civil Procedure Code, Article 119 of the Law on Administrative Procedures, the Court shall forward the petition, request and the documents and evidences enclosed to the court annexed Mediation and Dialogue Center when satisfying the following conditions: (1) The case falls under the jurisdiction of the Court; (2) The claimant, the defendant do not refuse the mediation or dialogue before the court accepts the case; and (3) The case shall not fall into the case which must not be mediated under the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code or which dialogues cannot be held under the Law on Administrative Procedures.

According to the prevailing laws, there are two types of conciliation: pre-litigation conciliation and conciliation in litigation proceedings. The conciliation process under Civil Procedure Code, Law on Administrative Procedures shall not be governed by the Law on Mediation and Dialogue. Therefore, mediation under this draft law is in the form of optional pre-litigation mediation.

Recognition and Enforcement of Court Annexed Mediation Settlement in Vietnam

After mediation or dialogue, the parties can request the Court to recognize the successful mediation or dialogue settlement. The decision to recognize or to not recognize a successful out-of-Court mediation result shall immediately take effect and shall not be appealed against according to appellate procedures (Item 8 of Article 419 of the Civil Procedure Code 2015), but can be protested according to cassation or reopening procedures under the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code. This provision is also recorded in the Draft of Law on Mediation, Dialogue. Out-of-court mediation results are recognized by the court and will be enforced by civil judgment enforcement agencies under law on enforcement.

From the international experience and the reality of Vietnam, the effective implementation of the mechanism of mediation and dialogue has great significance for the settlement of civil and administrative disputes, promotes consensus in society; reduces the number of cases workload, the demand to bring to trial; facilitates the Court to focus resources to further improve the quality of the trial.

Pilot Project of Court Annexed Mediation in Vietnam

Through the pilot project under decision No. 332/QD-TANDTC dated Mar 9th, 2018, Official letter No. 48/TANDTC-PC dated Mar 9th, 2018, and Official letter No. 72/72/TANDTC-PC dated Apr 16th, 2018 the Mediation and Dialogue Center in Hai Phong has received more than 2,500 petition and brought to mediation, dialogue nearly 2,400 applications. The project has been expanded to Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Bac Ninh, Khanh Hoa, Long An. The results and experience of the project will be an important basis for the drafting of the Law on Mediation and Dialogue.

Tuan Nguyen, Esq., CEDR Accredited Mediator

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How do you trademark a word that you made up?

The requirements to register a trademark are:

That the mark be used to describe a service, product, business. That it be used as a brand.

That the item being named by the trademark is in business or currently available to purchase. That is, that it is currently used “in trade”.

Register trademark in Vietnam

That your application describe the product or business sufficiently that the trademark office can assign it to a specific class of business (e.g. apparel). Trademarks only limit use by other businesses within that class of business. Apple Plumbing does not have to worry about being sued by Apple, who are in the class of electronic goods and computer software (among others).

I suspect what you are really trying to do is prevent anyone else from using this word that you made up. A word that has a specific definition in English and an intended use when communicating.

Trademark (and copyright, for that matter) are not at all interested in limiting the ability of people to communicate. Words, names, punctuation, symbols/letters/numbers are all without protection, free for anyone to use in normal communication. The trademark of “Apple” clearly doesn’t prohibit me from discussing the fruit that makes a delicious pie or strudel. It only prohibits me from using it to describe my own product or business which competes with Apple’s existing products or business.

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Why do copyrights last so long?

I strongly recommend that interested parties read this full article on Wikipedia covering copyright law and its evolution: History of copyright law

The good old House of Lords in England made the call in the mid 1700's that both Public Domain and statue-defined Copyright existed. France and the US were also grappling with how to promote, protect and ultimately share with the public any works. Remember, before this only a specific publisher in London would forever be the one with the right to print Shakespeare; a right under attack by devilish Scottish printers (how dare they!)

Now that the terms were subject to legislation, a moderate term of 14 years (with an extension of 14 more possible if the author was still alive) secured a limited monopoly that was intended to hold the author through to the end of his days and secure a reasonable inheritance for one's children. Not at all unexpected in societies that had Land Owners who derived profit by renting their land to use by farmers, workers or industry. (Read some Adam Smith if you want to hear more about how Rent is a fundamental element in economic understanding at the time.)

What is meant by copyright? 

Are eBooks protected bycopyright?

A hundred years later and we have internationalization of the scheme being defined in treaty. In the Berne Convention, signatories were all agreeing to Lifetime-plus-fifty-years as the new minimum term.

How did we get that jump? Again, the publishers constantly push things back toward their original conception of perpetual copyright. These expansions always cite the author's need, but benefit the business to an equal or greater amount. And terms have been pushed farther and farther out over the decades. Partially because it turns out there is big business in making sequels and derivative works.

Literature has turned from being primarily a means of disseminating information and turned into an entertainment venue where the public is voracious for new-but-familiar content. (Amusingly, this does not hold true for music, which falls completely out of public favor in about 40-50 years. Yet the RIAA is one of the fiercest fighters of copyright protections.)

Content publishers now fear that someone will make a better version of James Bond's Casino Royale if they are given the chance to make their own derivatives. And they are probably right. But that's not the best justification for 110-year-long copyright terms just so we can protect Mickey Mouse's first movie.

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Are eBooks protected by copyright?

Copyright, with regard to e-books, is a legal means of protecting them from being freely redistributed or unfairly used.

In the days of the Berne Convention, when copyright was initially introduced, books were printed, material products.

Copyright in Vietnam

Though today, books take on a whole new life with electronic formats, readers, and platforms, the copyright laws that protect a writer’s work from being stolen, shared, and re-sold still apply to e-books.

Nonetheless, with the rise of digital piracy, e-book copyright law has been notoriously difficult to implement in a way that deters people from unfair use of copyrighted material. This is especially the case for self-publishing authors, who neither have the funds or resources to pursue legal cases.

If you want to protect your e-books, you need security that is specific to their “digital” nature.

Digital rights management solutions (DRM) are the industry-standard tools to use if you want to implement e-book protection.

There are 3 main types of protection solutions that can be used to secure your e-books and deter piracy. They include:

Expiring Download Links

Expiring download links allow you to send your e-books for download by customers, with the link expiring after a certain number of uses, or a specified time period.

Watermarking

Watermark technology protects your e-books by imprinting visible or invisible watermarks containing your customer’s personal information on their pages.

Adobe DRM Encryption

This is the industry-standard solution used by major publishers. It enables you to set different permissions for copying, printing, and accessing your e-books. Adobe DRM encryption is the most secure way to protect your e-books.

I recently wrote a blog post for the EditionGuard blog, EditionLink vs EditionMark vs Adobe DRM: Choosing The Right eBook Fulfillment Option, which explains in more detail how to select the right type of DRM protection for your e-books. Check it out to see which one is right for you.

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Vietnam Ratifies the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific

PartnershipVietnam has recently ratified the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership – CPTPP (before Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement – TPP. This Agreement was signed on 08 March 2018 in Santiago, Chile including 11 countries New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Peru, Australia and Vietnam.

Law firms in Vietnam

TPP was initially expected to form a largest free trade area in the world with the participation of the United States of America (USA). Nonetheless, the President of USA – Mr. Donald Trump – withdrew USA from TPP, and the remaining members have to re-negotiate and establish CPTPP as a result. Eleven countries participating in the CPTP have total GDP of USD 10,000 billion equivalent to 13.5% of global GDP.

CPTPP will contribute to boost the export of goods to major markets such as Japan, Australia, Canada and Mexico as well as attract foreign investment into the sectors that Vietnam needs to be developed. Further, this participation has established trade relations with the countries which have never signed a free trade agreement with Vietnam before such as Canada, Mexico or Peru. One of the commitments of CPTPP, the members of CPTPP agree to eliminate import duties on almost all products within 7 years, and Vietnam is flexible up to 10 years. Joining CPTPP, Vietnam not only commits to open up markets, remove tariff barriers, continue to open and facilitate trade, but also continues to show the transparency of the State management on market’s development. The business lines being benefited directly and strongly from CPTPP are garment, textile, footwear, food manufacturing, drink, confectionaries, tobacco, …which is expected to receive investment from oversea through setting up factory, company and business joint venture inVietnam.

Further, CPTPP regulates the new legal issues being labour, environment, government procurement, Intellectual Property, state enterprises, …The CPTPP essentially retains the provisions of the TPP Agreement, but with the USA withdrawal, it allows Member States to reserve a number of articles to ensure the balance in the new situation.

In conclusion, Vietnamese enterprises should firstly keep up the commitments of CPTPP in order to seek up the favorable policy trends and to prepare the plans to build competitiveness and enhance the prestige on brand and product quality.

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How do I trademark and copyright my logo and wordmark?

Henry Thoreau once said: "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." So let's clarify some terms and definitions first, to make sure we are on the same page here and that you see the same things I see.

Trademark in Vietnam

When speaking about "logos" and "word marks", it is important to realize that those terms are not interchangeable, from a trademark attorney's perspective. There is a clear legal distinction. By definition, a “word mark” includes words only. If a mark includes some graphical/design elements instead of, or in addition to, words, then a trademark attorney would refer to such a mark as a “design mark” or a “logo”.

So if you have two separate trademarks (one of which is a word mark and another is a logo/design) then those would be two separate trademark applications. That applies even if the logo incorporates the same wording that you use separately as a word mark. Assuming both the logo and the word mark are used for exactly the same goods/services, then, yes, you would claim the same International Class(es) in both applications.

If a design mark / logo crosses a certain originality threshold, then it can also be eligible for copyright protection. The threshold is not overly high, but it does exist. If you merely apply some minor stylization to your word mark (e.g., the words appear in an unusual font) or your mark consists of a simple geometrical shape (e.g. a circle) with some words inside, then there might not be enough originality there to claim copyright protection. On the other hand, if a logo incorporates a drawing of animals, objects, people, etc., then it will be much more likely that the originality threshold has been crossed, and copyright protection will automatically attach to the logo as of the date it was created. There is a maze of rules as to which logos are copyrightable and which are not, but I think you got the overall picture.

As to word marks, generally they cannot be copyrighted, but like with everything in life, there are exceptions. But that is a separate long story.

A copyright owner is not required to obtain a copyright registration for his/her work (since copyright protection is automatic), but it is a very good idea to get a formal copyright registration as that provides significant benefits (i.e., public record of ownership, which can negate certain defenses an infringer might have, access to federal courts, a certain level of protection against importation of counterfeit products, etc.)

Related post: 

What is the difference between a trademark and a wordmark?

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How do I trademark and copyright my logo and wordmark?

Henry Thoreau once said: "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." So let's clarify some terms and definitions first, to make sure we are on the same page here and that you see the same things I see.

Trademark in Vietnam

When speaking about "logos" and "word marks", it is important to realize that those terms are not interchangeable, from a trademark attorney's perspective. There is a clear legal distinction. By definition, a “word mark” includes words only. If a mark includes some graphical/design elements instead of, or in addition to, words, then a trademark attorney would refer to such a mark as a “design mark” or a “logo”.

So if you have two separate trademarks (one of which is a word mark and another is a logo/design) then those would be two separate trademark applications. That applies even if the logo incorporates the same wording that you use separately as a word mark. Assuming both the logo and the word mark are used for exactly the same goods/services, then, yes, you would claim the same International Class(es) in both applications.

If a design mark / logo crosses a certain originality threshold, then it can also be eligible for copyright protection. The threshold is not overly high, but it does exist. If you merely apply some minor stylization to your word mark (e.g., the words appear in an unusual font) or your mark consists of a simple geometrical shape (e.g. a circle) with some words inside, then there might not be enough originality there to claim copyright protection. On the other hand, if a logo incorporates a drawing of animals, objects, people, etc., then it will be much more likely that the originality threshold has been crossed, and copyright protection will automatically attach to the logo as of the date it was created. There is a maze of rules as to which logos are copyrightable and which are not, but I think you got the overall picture.

As to word marks, generally they cannot be copyrighted, but like with everything in life, there are exceptions. But that is a separate long story.

A copyright owner is not required to obtain a copyright registration for his/her work (since copyright protection is automatic), but it is a very good idea to get a formal copyright registration as that provides significant benefits (i.e., public record of ownership, which can negate certain defenses an infringer might have, access to federal courts, a certain level of protection against importation of counterfeit products, etc.)

Related post: 

What is the difference between a trademark and a wordmark?

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