b. Logos under the stipulations of Law.

Vietnamese Laws as well as other laws on industrial property in general, normally have no specific regulations on logos, but the regulations on brands of goods, industrial models, and applied artistic works are those ensuring the author’s copyright and the logo owner’s rights.

In the protection of industrial property for logos (brands of goods, industrial models), the author does not play any important roles. All the rights and benefits arising when a logo is protected in form of brand of goods or industrial model belong to the logo owner. In this respect, most logo owners are only protected when they use such logos to participate in different activities of production & trade in certain groups or fields, and they are also protected in such groups or fields only. The grouping must comply with the stipulations of law.

In Vietnam, the term of protection for a brand of goods or industrial model is 10 years, as from the date of application submission, and the owner is entitled to extension for every 10 years.

There is no concepts of any international protection of industrial property for logos. A logo is only protected its industrial property in another country in case such country is indicated in the application for protection as stipulated in the relevant International Agreement to which Vietnam is a signatory or a participant.

The State Competent Authority for protecting the industrial property of logos, is the Intellectual Property Department of Ministry of Science & Technology.

In the protection of the copyright for a logo (deemed to be an applied artistic work), Vietnamese Laws recognize the rights of two subjects : The author of the work (logo) and its owner.

As mentioned above, the author is the one who created the work, personally embodying the work on paper or similar substances. The work owner is the one who holds the work owner’s rights as stipulated in the Civil Code, which basically include the rights to material interests brought about by the work; whereas, the author has the identity rights which are also specified in the Civil Code. The specific contents of such rights will be dealt with in the legal section.

In the scope of this paper, we shall no more deal with logos in industrial property. Now, we should evaluate logo and its role in trading activities, as well as considering its legality in the copyright.