Ministry of Justice proposes to amend the IP Law

According to local press, Ministry of Justice has finalized a draft report on the results of examination of 124 legal documents having relation with the enforcement of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code (“CPC”). The examination results reveal a great number of legal documents having contents incompatible or inconsistent with the CPC.

Concerning the Law on Intellectual Property (“IP Law”), Ministry of Justice reckons that it is necessary to make amendment to the provision according to which the losing party could be required to pay attorney fees of the winning party. Specifically, according to Clause 3, Article 205 of the IP Law, IP right holders have the right to request the court to force the infringing party to pay reasonable attorneys’ fees. This provision is not in accordance with Article 168 of the CPC, according to which interpreter and lawyer fees shall be borne by the requesting party, unless the parties agree otherwise.

In addition, Ministry of Justice also found inconsistencies between the IP Law and the CPC with regard to the regulations on bond requirement for preliminary injunction. Specifically, Clause 1, Article 136 of the CPC provides that the court shall determine the amount of money or valuable papers to apply to the party requesting preliminary injunction, but this amount must be equivalent to the potential loss or damage incurred would application of the preliminary injunction eventually prove to be groundless. However, according to Clause 2, Article 208 of the IP Law, the party requesting preliminary injunction shall only be required to deposit the bond in one of the following forms: an amount of money equal to 20% of the value of goods subject to preliminary injunction or at least VND 20 million (about USD 1.900) if the value of such goods cannot be determined; guarantees issued by bank or other credit institutions.