What are Application Dossiers to Apply for Bank Guarantee?

According to Vietnam Law on Credit Institution, and Circular 07/2015/TT-NHNN on bank guarantee, bank guarantee refers to a type of credit whereby the guarantor undertakes to act on behalf of the obligor to fulfill their financial obligations to the obligee in the event the obligor fails to fulfill or insufficiently fulfill their agreed-upon obligations to the obligee; the obligor must take on their debt obligations and repay the guarantor.

Bank Guarantee in Vietnam

Guarantee commitment is the written document issued by the guarantor or the counter-guarantee issuing party or the guarantee-confirmation issuing party.

According to Vietnam Law on Credit Institution, and Circular 07/2015/TT-NHNN, the application dossiers for bank guarantee are:

a) Written request for guarantee;

b) Materials related to customers;

c) Materials on guaranteed obligations;

d) Materials on security (if any);

dd) Materials related to other parties (if any).

Read More

Should intellectual property be abolished?

I am assuming your intended question was directed at the legal protections over intellectual property rights (i.e. patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets), and not the literal interpretation that we should stop creating and innovating.

The “value to society of intellectual property as a legally protected right” is an opinion with many views.

IP Services in Vietnam 

My view is that it would reduce the incentive for one to innovate and create. As an inventor, I would no longer share my thoughts and ideas with society so that others could grow them.

Individuals would be at a major disadvantage against larger companies who have more funds to test and revise quickly. An individual would need to protect all secrets until ready to build a final product and hit the market all as once. Because as soon as an innovation was released to the market, hoards of knock-offs would follow, quickly reducing the price, and quality.

As a writer, I would charge much more for my work, since it is free to be copied and sold by others, and value initially diminishes as a work becomes more commonly known.

Artist, Singers, Writers, etc. would be severely limited in what they could gain from their efforts and therefor would have incentive to prevent publishing, recording, and distribution to wider audiences. Inventors would spend time obfuscating their works, and refuse to explain new discoveries or improvement in the arts.

Read More

Labour matters in the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Area (EVFTA)

The International Labor Organization (ILO) is an international organization founded in 1919, after World War I and became the first specialized agency of the United Nations in 1946. The main purpose of the ILO is Promoting the rights of the employee in the workplace, promoting employment opportunities, enhancing social protection, and enhancing dialogue with people about work-related issues. Until now, the organization has 186 members worldwide and contributes to addressing labor-related issues around the world.

EVFTA Lawyers inVietnam

Vietnam has joined the ILO since 1992 and has its office located in Hanoi in 2003. The purpose of the ILO Vietnam is to promote workplace rights, promote sustainable working opportunities, social protection, and promote dialogue on issues related to employment.

The ILO Basic Conventions regulate the rights of the labor market in Vietnam to decide and support the labor market management needed by trade liberalization. Recently, the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Area (EVFTA) has been discussed, EU member states and Vietnam are all members of the ILO, therefore it may be argued that EVFTA has advocated compliance with the ILO approved and implemented standards. In addition, EVFTA encourages the expansion and improvement of initiatives to promote the company’s labor standards or corporate social responsibility. In the future, EVFTA and the ILO will work around issues such as modern slavery and child labor, risk management and increased transparency in labor relations.

The above fields are important fields for cooperation, considering the positive aspects of labor management, the impact of poor labor management on trade opportunities, therefore emphasize the role of labor management for the sustainability of the trade.

In Vietnam, there are many policies on the protection of workers’ rights and the protection of child labor, but the settlement of policies related to labor management, workplace communication has becoming improved. Until now, Vietnam has signed several Free Trade Agreements (FTA), some of which have provisions on labor issues, which require Vietnam to have the labor provisions which consist of the free trade. Vietnam’s current labor policies are gradually improving in order to be in line with the integration trend of the world and to preserve the best integration environment for domestic and foreign investors, therefore it brings the high efficiency in the economic development of the country.

Read More

How to Determine Financial Security to Request for Arrest of Ship?

According to Article 132 of Vietnam Law on Maritime, to request for arrest of ships, it is required to provide financial security to ensure that there is a way to hold the requester responsible in case the request is wrongful.

Maritime lawyers in Vietnam

The person requesting arrest of ships must provide financial security in either or both of the following forms:

i) Submitting asset-backed security documents issued by banks or other credit institutions, or individuals, agencies or organizations;

ii) Depositing a sum or valuable papers according to the Court’s judgement over execution of financial security in an escrow account opened at the bank within an area where the work office of the Court accorded authority to arrest a ship is located no later than 48 hours of receipt of such judgement.

The value of a financial security shall be decided by the Court and shall be proportionate to any loss or damage incurred due to consequences arising from request for wrongful arrest of a ship.

Read More

Cybersecurity law in Vietnam and data privacy issue

Vietnam’s cybersecurity law has been passed on 12/6/2018, will officially come into effect on Jan 1^st, 2019. This new law attracts attention, and contributions from many people. From the state management’s perspective, Cybersecurity Law is to protect national security. From business and users’ perspective, organizations that provide Internet services, social networks service, IT services companies, Fintech services, ecommerce websites and individuals whom use these services…. are directly affected groups.

Cybersecurity law firm in Vietnam

At present, much of the information is stored on e-mail, social networking platforms…According to Article 26 of Vietnam Cybersecurity Law, it is required to “Store in Vietnam for the personal information of people who use services in Vietnam and the important data related to national security; Having headquarters or representative offices set up in Vietnam”. It is understood that only foreign organizations with headquarters or representative offices in Vietnam are permitted to provide internet, social networking, fintech services in Vietnam. Accordingly, to continue the related services in Vietnam, organizations providing services such as the internet, social networks, fintech services need to establish a representative office in Vietnam and for storing data relating to users in Vietnam.

Point a, Clause 2 of Article 26 of Vietnam Cybersecurity Law regulates that organizations provide internet, social network services have to: “establish information authentication mechanism when user registers account; protect confidential information, user accounts; disclose users’ information to network security division under the Ministry of Public Security upon request in writing”.  It is suggested that, in order to protect the user’s information and to avoid abuse of power, the Ministry of Public Security should have specific guidelines for management.

According Article 21 of Vietnam’s Constitution in 2013: “everyone has the right to inviolability of private life, personal and confidential family secrets; have the right to defend the honor and prestige” “No one shall be permitted to open, control, illegally seize any correspondence, telephone, telegram and other forms of private communication.” With the introduction of the Vietnam Cybersecurity Law, the management of information, of service providers, and personal private information pose challenges in terms of data privacy.

Read More

Trading Conditions on Medical Device in Viet Nam

Medical device includes device related to human health, therefore, the business of medical device in the conditional business line in accordance with the law of Vietnam. Medical device is defined as kinds of device, tools, materials for implanting activities, reagents and in vitro calibration solutions, software which are used separately or in association with each other according to the instruction of their owners for human use for the purpose of diagnostic, prevention, supervision, treatment and elimination the illness or to making up for pains.

For medical device trading purpose in Vietnam, first of all, the enterprise should classify medical device. Medical device circulated in Vietnam will be classified based on the level of potential risks associated with the technical design and manufacture of such medical device.

Pursuant to Decree No.36/2016/ND-CP on medical device management, medical device shall be classified into the following 2 groups which are divided into 4 types as follows:

– Type 1 comprises Type A medical device which is medical device with low level of risks.

– Type 2 comprises Type B, C and D medical device, where

+ Type B medical device is medical device with lower average level of risks;

+ Type C medical device is medical device with upper average level of risks;

+ Type D medical device is medical device with high level of risks.

In case medical device can be classified into two or more levels of risk, the classification by the highest risk level of such medical device shall be applied. The classification of medical device must be conducted by qualified organizations as provided by law. In addition, the law of Vietnam recognizes the results of classification of medical device made by competent regulatory body in other countries such as Korea, Japan, … on the basis of international treaties or international arrangements to which Vietnam is a party or of a country which adopts a medical device classification system similar to that adopted by Vietnam.

After classifying medical device, the enterprise shall declare applicable standards for Type A medical device or issue certificate of free-sale registration for Type B, C, D medical device. This procedure makes sure that medical device which the enterprise has trading requirements, is allowed to be distributed in Vietnam.

Finally, with the exception of medical device of type A, in order to directly sell medical device to consumers, the enterprise needs to ensure the staffing requirements as well as the material facility requirements in accordance with the law, for instance:

Trading premise must have technically qualified staffs to perform the installation and use instructions suitable to the medical device which the establishment buys and sells, including at least one qualified technical staff specialized in technical or medical or pharmaceutical medical or technical colleges of medical device or higher or college or higher degree, whose specialized training is appropriate to the type of medical device that the establishment purchase.

Trading premise needs to prepare the warehouse which has area in accordance with the type and the quantity of the medical device to be stored. The warehouse should be airy, dry, clean, separated from sources of pollution and satisfied with other storing requirement device according to its manual. In addition, trading premise shall have suitable transportation vehicles for delivering of medical devices from trading premise to received place. In case there are no storage facilities or transport means, a contract with an establishment satisfying requirements for storage facilities and transport of medical device shall be concluded.

Read More

How exactly does registered trademark law works?

Intellectual property rights are territorial. American trademarks, patents and copyrights, therefore, do not confer protection on their owners in Europe if the IP owner has not registered their product with your nation’s patent office. The sole exception to this rule involves trademark applications filed under the Madrid Protocol. This system permits American business owners to submit trademark applications that protect their mark in the United States and other designated nations. If the trademark owner in your case did submit such an application and paid for IP protection in your country, you would be prohibited from using the mark.

Trademark Law Firm in Vietnam

Finally, I would strongly encourage you to research whether this comic book trademark is protected intellectual property in Europe. I say this only because the registered trademark symbol ‘(®)’ can denote a trademark in a country other than the United States. The comic book image could, for instance, be a registered trademark in Vietnam. You do not want to inadvertently violate any IP laws.

Read More