Currently, the Ministry of Science and Technology, in cooperation with the VCCI, is collecting opinions on the new draft decree, in which Article 1 amend a number of provisions of Decree 99/2013/ND-CP on sanctions for administrative violations in Industrial property (“Draft”).
The Draft aims to remove obstacles in the application of the law and to create conditions for effective enforcement of administrative sanctions in industrial property.
Some notable changes in the Draft are as follows:
– The Draft has added export activities to administratively sanctioned activities in case goods are found to infringe industrial property rights.
– The Draft removes the sanction “forcibly bringing goods in transit out of Vietnam border” in all remedial measures for infringing industrial property rights.
– The Draft loosens regulations that the form of confiscation of raw materials and means used for the production and sale of infringing goods is only applied if the violation is intentional and serious in the process of production or exporting, importing, trading, transporting, storing sale goods bearing fake trademarks or geographical indications.
– The draft expands the scope of seizure of the competent authority, whereby the total value of confiscated exhibits can be up to twice the amount of the fine already prescribed.
