Vietnam needs a proper plan to protect intellectual property rights

The industrial revolution 4.0 is gathering pace and is greatly driven on by the emergence of many new technologies such as big data, Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, which is posing both opportunities and challenges to the development of the value of intellectual property rights (IPRs).

IPRs will become a decisive tool for the technological competitiveness, necessitating that all organizations and businesses know how to create, hold, and own intellectual property (IP) so that they can develop sustainably.

For businesses, the value of intellectual property is getting higher than that of visible assets, which is demonstrated by multinational groups like Apple, Google, and IBM.

Despite having a complete legal system for IP in accordance with international standards, in order to utilize its efficiency, Vietnam must raise awareness of IPRs and use them to create a healthy competitive environment to boost trade and investment.

Therefore, increasing awareness for IP protection, exploitation and development is viewed as a legal platform for businesses to improve their production efficiency, maximize profits, and develop sustainably to firmly establish themselves in the domestic market towards achieving foreign market penetration This is one of the fundamental measures to grow further and sharpen increase the competitiveness of the national economy.

Tran Le Hong, chief of the secretariat of the Intellectual Property Department under the Ministry of Science and Technology has described IPRs as the legal foundation for businesses’ IP, which has becomes crucial to the operation of modern companies. Hence, increasingly complicated IPRs and IP related disputes demand highly raised awareness of IP, which is seen as a matter of paramount importance. The Intellectual Property Department is implementing many IP protection measures, including the building of a national IP strategy to submit to the Prime Minister for approval in the near future.

Accordingly, Vietnam’s IP system will be developed in tandem with the Industrial Revolution 4.0 to fully tap IP potential and value for the benefit of national socio-economic development.

As ever greater numbers of foreign investors and businesses show their keen interest in the Vietnamese market, exports of raw materials and outsourcing work are no longer the country’s main strength to ensure sustainable economic development associated with significant breakthroughs.

It is high time for organizations, individuals and businesses to use IP as a motivating factor for renovation, trade, and investment promotion and national competitive capacity improvement, thereby contributing to socio-economic development.

According to Le Thi Khanh Van, Vice President of Vietnam’s Intellectual Women Association, globalization is a golden opportunity if Vietnam swiftly grasps its available opportunities and equips itself with the requisite knowledge to fully exploit all of the benefits. To capitalize on the opportunities presented by new generation FTAs, the strategy to protect IPRs is required to indicate its high efficiency for sustainable development, Mrs Van says.