Over the years, Viettel has followed this spirit by approaching intellectual property not merely through patent registration, but by identifying it as a strategic asset that can be exploited to create real economic value and become a “lever” helping the enterprise expand its markets.
Inventions linked to business opportunities
By the end of 2025, Viettel owned 438 patents, including 391 domestic patents and 47 patents granted in the US.
According to the Intellectual Property Office of Viet Nam under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Viettel is the technology enterprise with the highest annual number of patent applications and patents granted in Viet Nam. The steady increase in its international patents, from only 11 in 2022, reflects the group’s recent breakthrough in research and mastery of new technologies. Viettel’s average growth rate in patent applications was 1.5 times higher than that of Viet Nam as a whole during in 2017-2022.
Regarding international patent registration, Viettel Group has focused on areas where it has the capacity to master core technologies and commercialisation potential in international markets, such as 5G/6G network technology, semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), and dual-use fields including radar and communications.
Viettel has chosen the US, through the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), as a key registration market because the US is the world’s leading technological power and has one of the most rigorous intellectual property legal systems. Exclusive protection in the US represents recognition that Viettel’s “Make in Vietnam” core technologies meet global standards. For a technology enterprise, protection in the US carries not only legal significance but also serves as an important reference when expanding protection and seeking opportunities in foreign markets.
For example, Viettel’s inventions related to eNodeB transceiver equipment have been directly applied to the production of 5G network devices, making Viet Nam one of the few countries in the world capable of producing new-generation telecommunications equipment on its own. At the same time, Viettel has expanded its high-tech industry market by exporting this technology to countries such as India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Also last year, Viettel was recognised by Gartner, the world’s leading technology research and advisory organisation, as a global provider of 5G radio equipment. Before making progress in 5G, Viettel’s patented technology solutions, such as the real-time charging system (vOCS), had already been deployed in 11 foreign markets, demonstrating that inventions can generate real commercial value.
According to Major General Nguyen Dinh Chien, Deputy General Director and Secretary of the Party Committee of Viettel Group, Viettel’s success comes from a systematic, scientific and effective approach, together with the discipline, determination and creativity of the “Viettel soldier”. This is the foundation that has enabled the enterprise to gradually master technology. Research and development (R&D) and inventions are not separate from business activities, but must be linked to the goal of mastering technology and expanding markets. Although the high-tech sector presents many challenges, it also opens up major opportunities for enterprises and for Viet Nam. Solving difficult problems and mastering technology are the key to development.
“With each product, whether military or civilian, Viettel seeks not only one solution but always prepares backup options. A single product may even have several options or different technologies. We are determined to identify core technologies, learn from them and master them,” Major General Nguyen Dinh Chien emphasised.
Strategy for developing and exploiting inventions
From that orientation, Viettel has translated its vision into clear mechanisms and policies in research and development. Colonel Nguyen Manh Hai, Head of the High-Tech Industry Department of Viettel Group, said the group had made long-term preparations, starting with the launch of activities to identify and register inventions for all research engineers, and the development of mechanisms and policies to encourage the registration of technical solutions in the form of patents and utility solutions. In each scientific research project, there is a requirement to seek protection for research outcomes in the form of patents, ensuring that every R&D project does not stop at creating a product but also generates intellectual property with legal value.
The group assigns annual patent registration targets to its units, with growth of more than 20%, while building reward mechanisms to encourage new ideas that can be registered for protection. As a result, Viettel now owns a series of inventions in digital infrastructure, digital services, high-tech industry and artificial intelligence.
Patent ownership has helped Viettel move from the position of a “technology application enterprise” to a “technology mastery enterprise” with core technologies. This has affirmed its independent research and development capacity, enhanced its reputation with international partners, and created conditions for equal cooperation in technology development and exchange. Clarivate, a leading international organisation in scientific research quality analytics, recognised Viettel for two consecutive years, 2020 and 2021, as the Vietnamese enterprise with the greatest influence on innovation in South Asia and Southeast Asia, based on four criteria: the number of patents, the number of citations, the patent success rate and the level of globalisation.
In the coming time, Viettel Group said it will continue to accelerate and create stronger breakthroughs in the spirit of Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW, especially by building a portfolio of inventions to be exploited in various forms, including production, business, technology transfer or licensing, thereby turning inventions into tools for market expansion and new revenue generation.
At the same time, Viettel Group will continue studying and developing a method for valuing intellectual property assets that suits the group’s specific characteristics, creating a basis for accounting, capital contribution, technology transfer and business cooperation negotiations based on intellectual property assets.
The valuation of patents not only helps enterprises clearly identify the real value of intangible assets, but is also a prerequisite for bringing patents into commercial transactions, investment cooperation or resource mobilisation in a transparent and professional manner. In the coming years, Viettel expects to have at least 200 patents recognised each year.
Colonel Nguyen Manh Hai affirmed that at Viettel, the spirit of innovation is always upheld, creating trust and motivation for staff to persist in research. This is also a favourable environment for developing products capable of reaching international markets. The enterprise’s leadership regularly promotes creative activities through various programmes, innovation movements and reward mechanisms for initiatives and inventions.
For Viettel, inventions are not only the outcome of research activities, but are gradually becoming a competitive tool that supports the enterprise in expanding markets through the very technological capability it has created.
