Social distancing in the whole city of Hanoi continues until 6 am, 6 September 2021
On 21 August 2021, Hanoi decided to continue its social distancing policy until 6 September 2021 all across the city in its attempt to control and prevent the spread of Covid-19. This is the city’s second extension of the social distancing for fighting against the fourth wave of Covid-19 epidemic outbreak.
In view of the above, the filing of applications and documents with the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (VNIPO) in the coming time will continue to be done electronically and by post. From what we have seen, as regards the documents which must be filed with the VNIPO by post such as the responses to the office actions, the applications and requests which cannot be filed electronically, etc., it takes rather long from the VNIPO’s receipt of the documents until the applicants and/or the IP agents receive the original official receipts returned from the Office (up to 10 days or more). Hopefully, in the coming time, the VNIPO and its postal service provider will have the solutions to speed up the sending of documents and receipts, reducing waiting time for applicants and IP agents.
Also, due to the concurrent social distancing imposed in major cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang where the VNIPO’s representative offices are located, applicants should closely monitor his/her cases so as to be able to take proactive actions to meet the prescribed deadlines. It is noteworthy that, most recently, VNIPO issued a notification dated 2 August 2021 on application of time limits to applicants affected by Covid-19, according to which “All procedures related to the registration of industrial property rights, namely, requests claiming priority rights, provision of supplementary documents, responses to VNIPO’s decisions/notifications, requests for annuities/renewal of the validity of protection titles, payment of all types of fees and charges, lodgment of appeals, which are due in the period from 30 June 2021 to 31 August 2021, shall be automatically extended to 30 September 2021”.