Vietnam has recently approved major updates to its Intellectual Property Law. The reforms modernize the IP system for the digital economy and change how businesses protect, commercialize, and enforce IP assets in Vietnam.
On December 10, 2025, the National Assembly approved amendments to the Law on Intellectual Property, which are scheduled to take effect on April 1, 2026. These changes aim to align Vietnam’s intellectual property (IP) framework with its fast-growing digital economy and strengthen rights holders’ enforcement options, especially online.
The amendments are also set to enable faster and more predictable registration outcomes by shortening the publication, opposition, and examination stages of industrial property procedures and introducing a new fast-track mechanism for eligible patent and trademark applications. Innovators and product companies will benefit from broader industrial design protection, which will cover product parts and certain non-physical forms.
However, data and software-intensive models will need to adhere to guidelines on text/data use, including those related to artificial intelligence (AI).
Vietnam’s current IP regime is anchored in the 2005 Law on Intellectual Property (amended in 2009, 2019, and 2022). On December 10, 2025, Vietnam’s NA passed another amendment package, scheduled to take effect on April 1, 2026.
The country’s regulatory direction is to make industrial property more commercial and finance-ready. Its lawmakers focus on treating patents, trademarks, and other IP as enterprise “knowledge assets” that can be valued, traded, and used as collateral rather than as merely legal rights.
The new law, thus, responds to the digital economy by putting in place more practical measures to enhance protection on creativity. These include:
Clarifying intermediary responsibilities for platforms and service providers; and
Accelerating registration procedures through shorter timelines and a fast-track mechanism for eligible patent and trademark applications.
Additionally, it begins to address questions related to AI applications. For instance, public summaries state that purely autonomous, AI-generated outputs are not eligible for copyright or patent protection and that protectability hinges on substantive human creative input.
Industrial design protection is expanded to cover parts of products and non-physical or digital forms of products.
Broader filing options for product-part designs and certain non-physical or digital product appearances. Companies should assess whether eligible digital appearances can be protected and align design filings with product launches.
The timeframe for substantive patent examination is shortened, and the deadline for requesting examination is reduced.
Faster patent grants improve time-to-market certainty and reduce delays in commercialization, licensing, and investment transactions.
Time limits for publication and opposition of patents, trademarks, and industrial designs are reduced.
Rights holders must monitor applications more closely, as opposition windows are shorter, while applicants benefit from quicker registration outcomes.