#17: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: How important is it for investors in Vietnam?

 Vietnam is the EU’s 2nd largest trading partner and the
German largest one among the 10 ASEAN nations. Conversely, The EU
is among the Vietnam’s top 4 largest trading partners and Germany
is the most important partner country in the EU. In term of FDI,
the largest sector of investment by the European companies is
industrial processing and manufacturing. 


The EVFTA  - EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement officially
entered into force in August 2020 and cover tariff as well as
non-tariff barriers to trade and other trade related aspects
including public procurement, regulatory issues, competition,
services, intellectual property rights and sustainable
development. For Vietnam, the tariff elimination will benefit key
export industries. On the other hand, European companies will
also have better access to Vietnam’s emerging and potential
market with a population of nearly 100 million.


 However, the Vietnamese market is now a level playing field
and its partners are from very high-developed countries, which
requires Vietnam to play to a higher standard. To that end, there
are many changes Vietnam is expected to make, and to improve its
intellectual property rights (IPR) system is a key part. IPR
protection is indeed very important to EU companies and they all
have a high demand for IPR protection and would expect Vietnam’s
IPR law and practice to help enforce their rights
effectively. 


 >>Therefore, we have Mr. Benoît Tardy, IP Business
Advisor and Ms. Nora Bihari, the Project Manager of
South-East Asia IP SME HELPDESK and Dr. Torsten Seeger
of the ConsultToSee, as our guests today, sharing their
experiences and best practices in Vietnam, in order to inform you
the overview of Vietnam’s IP and to help you well prepared in
doing business in Vietnam.

Further information on 


South-East Asia IP SME Helpdesk:


https://intellectual-property-helpdesk.ec.europa.eu/regional-helpdesks/south-east-asia-ip-sme-helpdesk_en


ConsultToSee


http://consultosee.com/en/