Having been a relatively unfamiliar field just over two decades ago, intellectual property is steadily becoming a key pillar of Viet Nam's knowledge economy. The process of refining policies, enforcing the Intellectual Property Law and integrating deeply with international standards has laid the foundation for innovation.
Yet to establish a meaningful presence on the global intellectual property map, Viet Nam requires not only a comprehensive legal framework but also stronger enforcement capacity and a greater ability to convert intellectual assets into real development value.
As international integration deepens, intellectual property is increasingly recognised as an important component of national competitiveness. While natural resources, labour and capital were once the decisive factors of production in a traditional economy, the value of companies and nations in the knowledge economy is increasingly tied to inventions, technologies, brands, designs, software, data, digital content and other intangible assets.
For Viet Nam, the development and refinement of its intellectual property system have progressed alongside the country’s process of reform, opening up and international integration. After more than 20 years of implementing the Intellectual Property Law, Viet Nam has established an important legal foundation for the creation, utilisation and protection of intellectual property rights, thereby promoting innovation, technology transfer, investment attraction and market development.
According to Nguyen Hoang Giang, Deputy Director of the Intellectual Property Office under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Viet Nam's intellectual property landscape has improved significantly in recent years, reflected in three notable developments.
The first is the rapid pace of reform and system enhancement through continuous legal improvements, accelerated digital transformation and shorter processing times. The second is the growing participation of domestic stakeholders, particularly in brands and industrial designs, demonstrating that awareness of intellectual property has become more closely linked to business activities. The third is deeper and more comprehensive institutional integration, as Viet Nam has joined numerous new-generation trade agreements and established an extensive network of international cooperation, ranging from WIPO to major intellectual property offices around the world.
These developments indicate that intellectual property is no longer merely a specialised legal field but is increasingly being incorporated into the broader development strategy of the knowledge economy. Amendments to the Intellectual Property Law, particularly the most recent ones, reflect an important shift from a mindset focused primarily on protecting rights to one that emphasises exploiting and commercialising those rights as economically valuable assets.
Giang noted that reforms such as shortening examination periods, introducing fast-track examination mechanisms, promoting comprehensive digital transformation and allowing intellectual property rights to be used as capital contributions or collateral are more than procedural changes. They are measures designed to integrate intellectual property into market and capital flows.
At the international level, Viet Nam's intellectual property legal framework has been built and refined on the basis of global standards such as the TRIPS Agreement and continues to be upgraded through new-generation free trade agreements including the CPTPP, EVFTA and RCEP. Viet Nam also actively participates in multilateral and bilateral cooperation mechanisms, ranging from WIPO, the WTO and ASEAN to major intellectual property offices worldwide, gradually harmonising its system and enhancing operational capacity.
The fact that foreign enterprises account for a substantial proportion of intellectual property filings in Viet Nam can, in many cases, be viewed positively. It indicates that Viet Nam is a market attractive enough for international corporations to introduce their technologies, brands and designs for use and protection. It also demonstrates that Viet Nam's intellectual property system is not merely a legal construct but one that enjoys practical credibility.
WIPO Director General Daren Tang receives on November 17, 2021, Viet Nam's instrument of accession to the WIPO Copyright Treaty from Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai, Permanent Representative of Viet Nam to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva. (Photo: WIPO)
WIPO Director General Daren Tang receives on November 17, 2021, Viet Nam's instrument of accession to the WIPO Copyright Treaty from Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai, Permanent Representative of Viet Nam to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva. (Photo: WIPO)
Yet the issue goes beyond that. Within this integration framework, the more important question is where Vietnamese enterprises stand. If core value elements such as patents, global brands and leading designs continue to belong primarily to foreign entities, the benefits retained within the domestic economy will remain limited.
Conversely, if integration is accompanied by technology transfer, knowledge diffusion and greater opportunities for domestic enterprises to participate in higher-value segments of production chains, intellectual property can become a factor that elevates national standing.
From this perspective, Viet Nam has integrated rapidly at the institutional level, but the challenge of the next stage lies in deeper integration in terms of implementation capacity, commercial exploitation and the creation of valuable intellectual assets.
If institutions provide the foundation, the rapid development of the digital economy is generating new demands for intellectual property. In the digital environment, intellectual assets are no longer confined to traditional patents, trademarks and industrial designs. They are also embodied in software, data, platforms, digital content, algorithms, AI models and creative products distributed across borders.
Dr Tran Van Khai, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for Science, Technology and Environment, views the current state of intellectual property protection and enforcement in Viet Nam from two perspectives. On the one hand, market demand is expanding rapidly thanks to the digital economy and innovation. On the other, enforcement in cyberspace remains an area requiring improvement.
The figures highlight mounting development pressures. Viet Nam's e-commerce market reached approximately 25 billion USD in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 20% and equivalent to around 9% of total retail sales. This growth has driven increasing demand for the protection of trademarks, designs, software, digital content and related rights. Viet Nam ranked 44th in the Global Innovation Index in 2024 and maintained the same position among 139 economies in 2025. WIPO recorded around 91,621 trademark applications in Viet Nam in 2024, placing the country 19th globally.
These figures indicate rapidly rising public awareness and market demand for intellectual property. However, if procedures for establishing rights become faster while enforcement remains weak, innovation may still be undermined by infringement. In 2025, market surveillance authorities handled 23,402 cases involving counterfeit goods, products of unknown origin and violations in e-commerce. These figures demonstrate that rights protection and rights enforcement must be treated as components of the same policy framework.
According to Dr Tran Van Khai, intellectual property must become the soft infrastructure of the digital economy. To stimulate innovation, management must shift from handling individual cases to governing the ecosystem as a whole through digitised enforcement, stronger substantive sanctions and shared responsibility among all stakeholders, including digital platforms.
The Intellectual Property Law, effective from April 1, 2026, is expected to have a direct impact on the registration, exploitation and enforcement chain for intellectual assets through greater digitalisation.
In terms of protection, the law updates protected subject matter to reflect the logic of digital products. Industrial designs are recognised in both physical and non-physical forms, while industrial application includes the identical reproduction of non-physical products in cyberspace. As a result, digital designs, interfaces and 3D models will enjoy a clearer legal basis for protection.
Regarding emerging technologies, the law authorises the Government to regulate the generation and establishment of rights where intellectual property involves artificial intelligence systems. It also permits the use of lawfully published texts and data for research, testing and AI training, provided this does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate rights and interests of rights holders.
In the area of commercialisation, the law introduces mechanisms for managing and exploiting intellectual property rights and encourages their use as capital contributions and collateral. It also promotes digital transformation in intellectual property activities and the creation of databases on protection and intellectual property transaction values. These measures are important for supporting valuation, transfer, exploitation and the financialisation of intellectual assets.
At the same time, procedures and enforcement are strengthened through the immediate publication of trademark applications, expedited substantive examination mechanisms, greater responsibility for digital platform operators in protecting rights, including content removal and access-disabling for infringing material, and higher ceilings for material damages.
These changes demonstrate that Viet Nam's intellectual property legal system is striving to keep pace with the rapid evolution of the technological environment. Nevertheless, implementation continues to raise difficult questions, particularly in the field of digital copyright, where infringements can occur instantaneously, anonymously, across borders and with the support of increasingly sophisticated technologies.
If there is one area that most clearly reveals the gap between rights protection and rights enforcement, it is digital copyright. It is also where the tensions between creative needs, intermediary platform interests, consumer habits of accessing free content and the enforcement capacity of authorities become most apparent.
Hoang Dinh Chung, Director of the Digital Copyright Centre under the Viet Nam Digital Communications Association, noted that the current state of digital copyright in Viet Nam can be summarised in a single sentence: copyright infringement in the digital environment remains a persistent problem with few truly effective solutions.
In recent years, alongside digitalisation, businesses have invested increasingly in the creation, development and exploitation of digital content. However, copyright disputes and infringements have also risen. According to Hoang Dinh Chung, copyright infringement is among the most common disputes in cyberspace and directly affects, and can even erode, the profits of legitimate businesses.
A notable issue is that copyright in the digital environment should be regarded as a form of property. Yet when disputes, infringements or acts of copyright theft occur, responses and enforcement are often less decisive than in the case of physical assets. Consequently, the unauthorised copying and use of content without the consent of authors or rights holders remains widespread.
According to Hoang Dinh Chung, three major bottlenecks exist within the current chain of digital content creation, distribution and consumption.
The first involves creators and content owners, who invest resources, effort, technology and time to produce content. The second consists of intermediary service providers, which distribute products to end users. The third comprises consumers of digital content.
Each link faces its own challenges. Content owners require tools to protect the assets in which they have invested. Intermediary platforms must balance the need to combat infringement with the need to maintain content supply and attract users. Consumers, meanwhile, remain accustomed to free content, while the transition to paid content requires time, reasonable pricing and greater legal awareness.
In practice, pirated film websites, illegal sports streaming platforms and websites distributing unauthorised e-books illustrate the complexity of digital copyright infringement. Although measures such as blocking, domain suspension and content removal requests have been implemented, violations persist. Some operators function almost like technology companies, supported by sophisticated systems for distributing infringing content across digital platforms.
This has turned the protection of digital copyright into a continual race between protective technologies and infringement technologies. According to Hoang Dinh Chung, once an asset enters the digital environment, it requires protective tools in the same way that a warehouse requires locks. Moreover, content distribution systems need traceability mechanisms capable of identifying where content is located, who accesses it and how value is recovered.
The Digital Copyright Centre has implemented various technological solutions to protect content, including digital rights management (DRM), anti-download measures, screenshot prevention, restrictions on direct device recording and protection for livestreams, e-books, audiobooks, digital music and OTT platforms. However, these measures can only create barriers rather than eliminate infringement risks altogether.
Chung admitted frankly: “A lock can deter honest people, but those intent on infringement will always find ways to break in.”
The issue of digital copyright highlights a broader reality: in the knowledge economy, legislation alone is insufficient. An effective intellectual property system requires appropriate institutions, strong enforcement mechanisms, supporting technologies, platform accountability, user awareness and the capacity of rights holders to protect themselves.
When international partners bring technology, research centres, cooperation programmes, training initiatives and knowledge transfer projects to Viet Nam, their concern extends beyond whether legal regulations are comprehensive to include the reliability of the system in protecting rights, resolving disputes and safeguarding the value of intellectual assets.
Viet Nam has travelled a long way in building its intellectual property institutions. Legal reforms, the growing participation of domestic enterprises, deeper international integration and achievements in innovation demonstrate that the foundations have been established. Yet to secure a genuine position on the global intellectual property map, the challenge ahead is not simply to generate more applications or issue more protection certificates.
More important is how much knowledge can be transformed into technology, how many intellectual property rights can be converted into economic value, and how many Vietnamese enterprises can participate more deeply in the stages of creation, design, research, commercialisation and intellectual property protection in international markets.
Published: June 2026
Production manager: Thach Vu
Content: Quynh Lan, Minh Phuong, Van Toan, Trung Hieu, Thanh Mai, Hoa Bui