The meeting was held for members of the Working Group on Intellectual Property, including geographical indications between Vietnam and the EU, to exchange and discuss contents related to the implementation of IP commitments of intellectual property under the EVFTA Agreement. The Vietnamese side is chaired by Mr. Nguyen Van Bay, Deputy Director of the NOIP along with members of the Vietnamese side including representatives from the Copyright Office (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), the National Office of Intellectual Property (Ministry of Science and Technology), Department of Crop Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development).

Regarding the content of copyright and related rights, the Vietnamese side provided information on the process of joining the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performance and Sound Recording Treaty (WPPT) and other contents related contents in the Draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the IP Law.

Accordingly, a representative of the Copyright Office (World Copyright Office) said that the accession to the WCT and the WPPT Treaty is in the process of drafting a dossier to submit to the Government. Currently, dossiers are being sent to relevant ministries and sectors for comments. It is expected that Vietnam will join these two treaties in 2022.

Regarding the Draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Intellectual Property Law, the Department of Copyright will update you on the revised provisions on copyright and related rights in order to fulfill international commitments, including commitments in the EVFTA Agreement. At the same time, the representative of the Department of Copyright also proposed that the EU provide technical support in the implementation of the WCT Treaty and the WPPT Treaty, as well as provide experiences in copyright protection in the digital environment.

The EU side also provided Vietnam with a number of changes in the Copyright Directive, which was revised and took effect in 2019.

Regarding industrial property content, the two sides also discussed some amendments to the IP Law to implement the commitments of the EVFTA Agreement, such as the basis for trademark termination, simplifying trademark registration procedures in Vietnam; mechanisms to compensate patent owners for delays in licensing of pharmaceutical products; mechanism for protection of drug test data and agrochemical test data protection, etc.

Regarding the content of IPR enforcement, the two sides exchanged regulations on civil handling measures for violations of IP rights and measures to enforce rights at the border. The EU side expressed interest in the regulation on the limitation of the administratively sanctioned IP objects to strengthen the role of civil remedies and the regulation on the responsibility of intermediary service providers to ensure the enforcement of copyrights, related rights in the digital environment in the draft IP Law of Vietnam, and at the same time requesting to provide some information related to the handling of IP rights violations on Vietnamese e-commerce platforms presently.

At the end of the meeting, chair the meeting of the EU side to summarize the discussions and proposals of the two sides. Accordingly, the two sides agreed in the near future to hold separate meetings on copyright protection in the digital environment as well as on geographical indication protection so that the agreement can be effectively implemented Agreement.