Vietnam Proposes Further Amendments to Its IP Law: 18 Administrative Procedures to Be Abolished and 5 Business Conditions to Be Removed

Vietnam is considering a further, targeted amendment to its Law on Intellectual Property (IP Law). The draft legislation focuses on streamlining administrative procedures, removing business conditions for intellectual property assessment services, and consolidating state management of plant variety rights under the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). The Government has stated that the draft would abolish 18 administrative procedures and remove five business conditions. The proposals remain subject to legislative consideration and should not be treated as enacted law.

A targeted reform rather than a wholesale revision

The draft was presented to the National Assembly on 24 October 2026 by the Minister of Science and Technology, Vu Hai Quan. It proposes amendments to 25 of the 222 articles of the current IP Law and is structured around substantive amendments, implementation provisions and transitional provisions. The overall subject matter of the IP Law remains unchanged, covering copyright and related rights, industrial property rights, plant variety rights and the protection of those rights.

The proposal forms part of Vietnam’s broader programme to reduce administrative burdens, streamline business conditions and reorganise government functions. Some of the relevant policy changes have already been introduced through Government resolutions and amendments to investment legislation. The draft amendment is intended to align the IP Law with those changes and provide a more consistent statutory framework.

Assignment recordal: a separate contract-registration procedure would be removed

One of the most directly relevant changes for IP owners is the proposed removal of the separate procedure for registering agreements assigning industrial property rights and plant variety rights. Under the proposed approach, a change in the ownership details recorded on the relevant protection certificate following an assignment would be handled through the procedure for amending that certificate.

For businesses and overseas rights holders, this is intended to remove a separate administrative step from the process of recording an assignment. It does not mean, however, that ownership details on a registered protection certificate can simply be left unchanged. For rights established through registration, recording the new owner with the competent authority remains important to identifying the recognised rights holder. The final legislation and implementing rules will need to clarify the relationship between the assignment agreement, its effectiveness between the parties, recordal of the change of ownership and the treatment of pending applications.

The reviewing body has specifically called for clearer transitional provisions, including the treatment of assignment-related dossiers submitted before and after 1 July 2026, when Government Resolution No. 66.18/2026/NQ-CP took effect. This is intended to avoid duplicate processing, gaps or inconsistent treatment of matters already being handled by the authorities.

IP assessment services: from business-condition controls to notification and post-inspection

The draft also proposes removing five business conditions applicable to organisations and individuals providing IP assessment services: one condition for organisations and four for individuals. Instead of the existing business-condition framework, providers would be subject to a notification requirement when commencing operations or providing services. Further rules on the rights and obligations of providers and the procedures for conducting assessments are expected to be set out in subordinate legislation.

This proposal follows changes to Vietnam’s investment-law framework, under which IP assessment services have been removed from the list of conditional business lines. The draft amendment is intended to bring the IP Law into line with that policy direction.

The proposed deregulation has also raised questions about quality control. IP assessment reports can be important technical evidence in the establishment, exercise and enforcement of IP rights. During the National Assembly’s plenary discussion on 3 November 2026, lawmakers called for an effective post-inspection mechanism to preserve the reliability and objectivity of assessment work. The Minister indicated that provider responsibilities, information duties, conflicts of interest and liability for losses would be addressed in implementing regulations.

Plant variety rights: state management would move to MOST

Another major proposal is to transfer state management responsibility for plant variety rights from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to MOST. The stated policy objective is to consolidate IP administration under one ministry, make better use of existing digital infrastructure and IP databases, and strengthen the link between plant variety protection, science and technology, innovation and the commercialisation of IP assets.

The draft would also remove detailed provisions on dossiers and procedures for establishing plant variety rights from the IP Law and delegate the relevant details to the Minister of Science and Technology. This is intended to bring the regulatory approach for plant variety rights closer to the framework used for industrial property rights.

The authorities have described transition arrangements for transferring files, data, examination and testing results, and ongoing work between the two ministries. The Government has indicated that applications already filed and procedures in progress should continue to be processed without requiring applicants to repeat completed steps. The proposed administrative transfer should not, in itself, be understood as changing the substantive requirements for plant variety protection.

Points raised during parliamentary review

The National Assembly’s discussion on 3 November highlighted the need to ensure that administrative simplification produces practical reductions in time, documentation and compliance costs, rather than shifting removed requirements into lower-level regulations. Lawmakers also called for clearer allocation of responsibilities between central and local authorities and effective oversight of IP assessment services.

For plant variety rights, the review has focused on coordination between the IP and agriculture authorities, consistency with the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV Convention), and the use of technical testing results. The Minister explained that test results may be used for both protection and commercial release where appropriate, but the legal requirements for protection are not necessarily the same as those for commercial release.

Some lawmakers also raised broader topics, including the use of data to train artificial intelligence models, IP commercialisation and protection in the digital environment. The Government indicated that these matters would require further study and may be considered in future, more comprehensive reviews. They are not the principal focus of the current draft.

What foreign applicants and rights holders should watch

For foreign applicants and IP owners, the most immediate areas to monitor are the final procedure for recording ownership changes after an assignment, the notification and oversight framework for IP assessment providers, and the practical arrangements for plant variety matters following the proposed transfer to MOST. Parties with assignment dossiers or plant variety applications already in progress should pay particular attention to the final transitional provisions.

At this stage, it would be premature to assume a specific reduction in processing time or official fees. Those practical effects will depend on the final statutory wording and the implementing regulations. Applicants should continue to follow the existing filing and recordal requirements unless and until the relevant changes are formally adopted and brought into force.

Legislative status and next steps

The draft was considered by the National Assembly Standing Committee on 24 September 2026, reviewed during October, and presented to the National Assembly on 24 October. Lawmakers debated the draft in plenary session on 3 November, after which the Minister of Science and Technology responded to issues raised. As of 7 November 2026, no adoption of the draft law had been reported.

Some earlier media coverage referred to 1 March 2027 as an expected effective date. That date should not be treated as confirmed. The effective date and transitional arrangements must be checked against the law as ultimately adopted and officially published.

How this relates to the 2025 amendments

The current IP Law was most recently amended by Law No. 131/2025/QH15, which took effect on 1 April 2026. The 2025 amendments addressed, among other matters, the development and commercialisation of IP assets, artificial intelligence and digital transformation. The 2026 draft is a further, limited amendment to the existing law, with a different emphasis: administrative simplification, the removal of business conditions and the reallocation of state management responsibility for plant variety rights. It is not a replacement IP law.

This article is a general news and legal update based on the draft and publicly available information as at 7 November 2026. It is not legal advice. The draft may be revised before adoption, and the final law and implementing regulations should be consulted once published.

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