Circular No. 11/2015/TT-BKHCN dated June 26, 2015 of the Ministry of Planning and InvestmentDetailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Government’s Decree No. 99/2013/ND-CP of August 29, 2013, on sanctioning of administrative violations in the field of industrial property

Recycling of product packages regarded as act of infringing industrial property rights

On June 26, 2015, the Ministry of Science and Technology issued the Circular No. 11/2015/TT-BKHCN detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Government’s Decree No. 99/2013/ND-CP of August 29, 2013, on sanctioning of administrative violations in the field of industrial property.

Accordingly, the reuse, repair or recycling by organizations or individuals of products or product packages bearing marks, trade names or geographical indications marketed by rights holders to create other products shall also be regarded as an act of infringing upon industrial property rights or an act of unfair competition in case such act misleads consumers as to the commercial origin of products, business entity, business activities or properties of products under relevant provisions on acts infringing upon industrial property rights and acts of unfair competition.

Under this Circular, act of registering, appropriating the domain name use right or using domain names shall be regarded as an act of unfair competition in industrial property including using Vietnamese national domain names “.vn” with sequences of characters identical or confusingly similar to marks, trade names or geographical indications currently protected or widely used for advertising, introduction of products, offer for sale of identical, similar or related goods or services on websites which such domain names direct to; causing a confusion about and taking advantage or causing damage to the reputation of or material damage to owners of such marks, trade names or geographical indications; or registering or appropriating the right to use Vietnamese national domain names “.vn” with sequences of characters identical to reputable or well-known marks, trade names or geographical indications in Vietnam, while there are grounds to believe that organizations or individuals register or appropriate the domain name use right only for resale to earn profits or to prevent owners of such protected marks, trade names or geographical indications from registering domain names.