Introduction
Vietnam has rapidly emerged as one of Southeast Asia’s most attractive manufacturing and consumer markets. Indian Businesses see Vietnam as a potential market for Trade and Investment. Indian exporters, pharmaceutical manufacturers, IT service providers and consumer brands are increasingly looking at Vietnam as a primary growth hub in Southeast Asia. As Vietnam expands into a dynamic international market, it requires a solid understanding of local intellectual property (IP) laws.
Vietnam will implement significant procedural amendments to its Intellectual Property Law effective 1 April 2026. The new amendments consist of the Law on Intellectual Property (Law No. 131/2025/QH15), alongside supporting legislation such as Decree No. 100/2026/ND-CP and Circular 10/2026. These changes modernise Vietnam’s IP framework by streamlining examination processes, strengthening patent administration, enhancing digital enforcement and providing right-holders with stronger tools to stop infringement. One of the central focuses of the amendments is to streamline the pathways to IP protection. These include shortened timelines for publication, opposition, and substantive examination of trademark, patent, and industrial design applications.
Planning to export or invest in Vietnam, Indian businesses need to understand how these legal shifts work and knowing what to file first is important to securing market presence and preventing legal disputes.
1. What has Changed? Practical Impact on Trademarks, Patents & Enforcement
These amendments modernise Vietnam’s IP ecosystem to match the fast pace of modern digital commerce. The key changes directly affect how foreign assets are registered and protected.
For Indian Businesses, the amendments carry three immediate practical consequences:
- Obtaining timely registration has become more important as enforcement mechanisms primarily benefit registered rights holders.
- Businesses should integrate their IP planning into their market strategy instead of treating registration as a post-launch compliance exercise.
- Businesses operating across multiple forms of intellectual property should carefully sequence their filings to maximise cost-effectiveness.
Trademarks: Streamlined Approvals and Compressed Timelines
Trademarks remain the most commercially valuable asset for businesses. The new amendments shortened processing timings to clear administrative hurdles:
- Formality Examination: Reduced from 1 month to 15 days.
- Official Publication: Reduced from 2 months to 1 month following formality acceptance.
- Substantive Examination: Shortened to 5 months from 9 months.
- Third-Party Opposition Window: Compressed significantly from 5 months to 3 months from the date of the publication.
These amendments provide broader protections to trade dress and recognise non-traditional marks, such as sound marks. Also, under Circular 10/2026, applicants with urgent commercial launches can request an accelerated examination track to receive preliminary approval in as little as 3 months.
Patents: Innovation Requires Early Protection
Reductions have been seen in the invention patents. The time frame when applicants must file a request for a substantial examination has been reduced from 42 months to 36 months from the date of priority, while the time for performing a substantial examination has been reduced from 18 months to 12 months.
For technology-powered Indian companies, especially startups involved in IT, software, or health-tech, the regulations related to artificial intelligence are being introduced:
• Human inventorship: AI cannot be considered an inventor; there should be specified a natural person.
• Human contribution statements: Applications dealing with inventions made through AI should include a paper demonstrating the contribution of a specific human inventor and corresponding R&D logs.
Enforcement: Enhanced Digital and Customs Measures
Due to modernised enforcement tools, protecting products from counterfeiting and grey- market diversion is now much easier:
• Intermediary Service Provider (ISP) liability: E-commerce sites, hosting services, and social media have clear obligations of care. Courts will require service providers to remove any suspicious accounts or goods.
• Damage increase: Compensation limits for infringement claims have doubled: from 500 million VND (around $19,500) to 1 billion VND (around $38,000).
• Seal Warehouse Raids: Administrative law application may extend to the mere storage of counterfeit products, thus preventing any illegal activities before the products are sold.
• Customs Implementation: It is possible now to register trademarks with the General Department of Vietnam Customs to allow timely detention of suspicious goods.
2. Navigating First-to-File Pressure and Registration Sequencing
In many common law contexts, India’s legal system recognises “First-to-Use” principles. Vietnam operates strictly on a First-to-File principle.
Whoever 1st submits the IP application to IP Vietnam first gets the exclusive right to that asset, regardless of the fact that who created or used it first elsewhere in the world.
The Impact of 3-Month Opposition Window
The opposition window has been reduced from 5 months to 3 months, which means third parties now have a short time to oppose a pending trademark application, which means local competitors and bad-faith squatters move rapidly. If any Vietnamese local entity registers your brand name or logo, your objection window is narrow. Once the 90-day window is over, cancelling a squatter’s registered trademark will become more complex and time-consuming.
Logical Registration Sequencing for Indian Businesses
Indian exporters should follow a structured sequencing plan to protect their core assets:
INDIA BUSINESS IP FILING TIMEFRAME
STAGE 1: Immediate (Day 0-30)
• Key Brand Identifiers
• Vietnamese Transliterations
• Patent Applications
STAGE 2: Mid-Term (Day 30-90)
• Customs Border Recordation
• Packaging & GUI Designs
• Software and Copyright Designs
1. Primary Brand Identifiers: Start by registering the various brand names, logos, and the names of main products.
2. Vietnamese Transliterations: Register the phonetic Vietnamese equivalent of the brand already in English or Hindi. Since local consumers often tend to translate foreign wordings into Vietnamese, it is advisable to secure the Vietnamese version of the brand name before any competitors do.
3. Product Form and Digital Design: Make sure to register the form, design, and the graphical user interface of the product in accordance with the new industrial design provisions.
4. Customs Registration: Once you receive the numbers, you need to file for registration with the Vietnamese Customs for the purpose of preventing counterfeit goods from entering the country.
3. Why Exporters Should Not Wait for Market Launch
A common strategy among growing businesses is to invest in international IP filings after gaining local sales traction. In Vietnam, delaying IP registration exposes businesses to significant commercial risks for several reasons:
Distributor Hijacking
In a case where an Indian exporter makes contact with a Vietnamese distributor, salesperson, or importer, and does not have previous trademark registrations in place, the local partner may file the brand name. This can be in good faith or pure wrongdoing. The local partner may also argue that this was just a helpful act of registration.
However, once the local partner has successfully registered the trademark, it has the upper hand. If, in the future, you would like to use another distribution partner or renegotiate the contract terms, the original partner will eventually have the right to refuse entry of your products into the country, and treat them as illegal imports.
Regulatory Product Approval Delays
Having products in several areas but running them in regulated sectors (medicines, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, packaged food) to register the product with Vietnamese authorities, which is the Ministry of Health as an example of the government body, requires further proof of the brand ownership. In situations where the brand ownership has been claimed by squatters, the registration can be delayed.
High Cost of Dispute Resolution
Vietnam is a country where, legally speaking, companies can defend themselves against bad faith claims, but establishing that there was an act of bad faith requires vast amounts of evidence, local attorneys, and years of administrative proceedings. In order to protect your trademark, the best strategy would be to apply for trademark registration early on to save you from enormous expenditure on the litigation process or potential buyout negotiations later.
Fast-Track Clearance are Available
With the introduction of Circular 10/2026, it is no longer a necessity for Indian companies to wait for years in order to get their trademarks registered. Exporters are able to cut the waiting time for registration if they can prove that the goods have commercial value and can present them as soon as the first shipment arrives.
4. A Simple Market-Entry IP Filing Plan
To develop a comprehensive legal base in Vietnam, organisations must engage in a systematic 180-day plan for entering the market.
Phase 1 (Days 0–30: Pre-Entry Clearance) begins by performing clearance searches in the IP Vietnam database and filing trademark applications for priority trademarks, regardless of the language used in their names, be it English or phonetic Vietnamese. At this stage, applications for patents must be submitted, accompanied by statements confirming human presence in R&D involving artificial intelligence technology.
The second phase (Days 30–90: Contractual Protection) includes the process of registering non-material industrial designs, like mobile application user interfaces or design of packaging, and creating contractual agreements related to the distribution and manufacturing issues, whereby it has to be mentioned that any intellectual property rights related to the objects produced locally belong to the parent company.
During Phase 3 (Days 90–180), businesses have to ensure that received IP certificates are directly filed to the General Department of Vietnam Customs for automatic monitoring and also install monitoring systems on popular e-commerce sites. This method ensures fast removal of unauthorised sellers through the use of the ISP liability concept.
By taking this proactive, early approach, expanding businesses can secure their innovations, brand equity, and market share across Southeast Asia
Conclusion
Vietnam's IP Amendments 2026 present Indian companies aiming to grow in Southeast Asia with a challenge as well as an opportunity. Vietnam is changing over to a quicker, digital-first legal system, and as a result, there is no longer room for post-launch compliance or “First-to-Use” approaches. The short three-month opposition period, the strict “First-to-File” approach, and the requirement for explicit AI disclosures are factors that require Indian exporters, pharmaceutical companies, and IT providers to secure their IP rights well ahead of commercial launches.
The key to successful application of a structured filing plan lasting 180 days is to prioritise the most important marks, local translations of trademarks, and customs recordal. Proactive registration of IP is not just an issue of good legal practices but also a crucial business asset in Southeast Asia.
References
1. Law No 131/2025/QH15 Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Intellectual Property 2025 (Vietnam).
2. Decree No 100/2026/ND-CP Detailing and Guiding the Implementation of a Number of Articles of the Law on Intellectual Property 2026 (Vietnam).
3. Ministry of Science and Technology, Circular No 10/2026/TT-BKHCN Guiding Procedures for Industrial Property Registration and Accelerated Examination Tracks 2026 (Vietnam).
4. Law No 50/2005/QH11 on Intellectual Property 2005 (as amended by Law No 131/2025/QH15), art 90.
5. Decree No 100/2026/ND-CP (n 2).
6.Law No 50/2005/QH11 on Intellectual Property 2005 (as amended by Law No 131/2025/QH15), art 198b.
7. Decree No 65/2023/ND-CP Detailing a Number of Articles and Measures for Implementation of the Law on Intellectual Property 2023 (Vietnam).