Đinh Hữu Phí

Director of the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) Đinh Hữu Phí tells Lao Động (Labour) newspaper about using technology to make it easier to establish intellectual property rights in the context of Viet Nam being elected as the new chair of the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

One of the NOIP’s goals is to use information technology to simplify procedures in handling issues of intellectual property (IP) rights, but the target still seems a long way away and there has been an increase in the number of applications. How will the NOIP handle this?

Despite many efforts, the processing and handling of applications and registration for IP rights has not met the increase in demand.

Many IP right applications have been overdue for many years, especially patent applications. Meanwhile, the growth rate of IP registration applications keeps increasing at about 10 per cent a year.

To solve this, the NOIP will continue to review the procedure to shorten and simplify the process of handling applications and promote decentralisation in solving issues related to the process.

The agency will also set up monitoring and inspection teams for industrial property right processing.

The NOIP will invest more in information technology to create a database and search tools for a quality management system, improve staff skills to enhance the use of foreign and international search results for invention applications and collaborate with research institutes, universities in patent appraisals.

It will continue to boost the use of foreign search results, strengthen the collaboration and share experience with foreign institutes, universities and organisations in handling patent appraisal applications. 

Among such solutions, the application of information technology is the most important.

In addition to enhancing IT infrastructure, the agency will seek support from the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and its international partners to modernise the industrial property management system.

How has the NOIP prepared for the fourth industrial revolution?

IP rights have long been known as an important driving force for socio-economic development. Whenever an industrial revolution occurs, IP rights will reach another development step due to increasing demands of socio-economic development due to new achievements in science and technology.

Today, the fourth industrial revolution is shaping up.

This revolution is resulting from a convergence of new technologies such as large databases, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence.

This is an environment that demands development for IP rights to reach a new height.

IP rights will become a tool that determines the competitive strength of technology for all stakeholders, so every organisation and business should find ways to create, acquire and own intellectual property.

However, there are challenges that a developing country like Việt Nam will face from the perspective of IP rights, especially the negative impacts such as the high cost of using and exploiting intellectual property as well as difficulties in accessing IP systems.

To cope with that situation, the NOIP is developing a National Intellectual Property Strategy to submit to the Prime Minister for approval, in which the development of the country’s IP system in the context of the fourth industrial revolution has been taken into account to promote national potential and the value of intellectual property.

How has Việt Nam worked with the WIPO?

WIPO is one of Việt Nam’s leading partners in the field of IP. This was confirmed through official visits to Việt Nam by the director general of WIPO in 2010 and March 2017.

In 2018-19, the WIPO will continue to focus on the maintenance and development of international registration system for public property, particularly the application of information technology and creation of a favourable environment for global users to simplify procedures and increase the efficiency of application handling process.

This is also a plan for IP development in Việt Nam in the context that more and more foreign investors and businesses are interested in the Vietnamese market.

Areas in which the two sides will focus on co-operation include the development of a national IP right strategy, support to Việt Nam in its entry into the Hague agreement on international registration of industrial designs and IT system modernisation with the aims of enhancing administrative capacity and speeding up the processing of industrial property registration at the NOIP.

The WIPO will also support Việt Nam to participate in some development projects. — VNS