On May 26, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance issued Circular No. 45/2020/TT-BTC on the reduction of fees for registration of foreign QR codes as well as certain industrial property fees. Accordingly, the industrial property fees listed in Section A of the schedule promulgated with Circular No. 263/2016/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance will be temporarily reduced by 50% from May 26 until the end of 2020, returning to the old levels on January 1, 2021.

UPDATE: On December 29, 2020, the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam issued Circular No. 112/2020/TT-BTC announcing that these fee reductions would be extended until June 30, 2021.

Specifically, the following fees will be subject to the 50% reduction:

1. Filing fees for applications (including divisional applications and converted applications);
2. Fees for requesting an extension of time to respond to the IP Office’s notifications;
3. Fees for issuance of protection titles;
4. Fees for issuance of certificates of recordal of IP license agreements;
5. Annuities for patents for inventions/utility solutions and renewal fees for trademark registration certificates and patents for industrial designs;
6. Fees for late payment of annuities/late filing for renewal;
7. Fees for requests for invalidation/termination of protection titles;
8. Fees for issuance of IP agent practicing certificates, publication and recordal into National Registry.

Generally speaking, the fees above are quite small, ranging from VND 50,000 to VND 200,000 (approximately USD 2 to USD 9), and typically constitute only a small portion of the total fees to be paid for the corresponding procedures. The higher fees for other items such as examination are not subject to this temporary adjustment. Thus, in most cases, the cost savings are minimal. (However, it is worth noting that some of these fees are applied on a per-claim or per-class basis, and the total costs and savings in some cases could be significant.) Nonetheless, this shows the efforts of the government of Vietnam to support applicants for IP registration affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

For more details on the fee reduction, please contact us at [email protected].

This article was originally published on May 29, 2020.