1. What is an exclusive trademark of advertisement, business management, transaction management and office operation services

Exclusive trademarks are signs (including a combination of factors such as letters, words, drawings, images, including holograms represented by colors ...) used to distinguish goods/services groups of this organization, individual with the same goods/service groups of another individual, organization.

Advertisement, business management, transaction management and office operation services are groups of service that mainly include activities carried out by individuals or organizations whose main purposes are:

- Help with running or operating a trading company, or

- Assisting an industrial or commercial enterprise operating business or commerce, as well as the services of an advertising agency who is responsible for public relation, declaration or notification by all media methods and related to all kinds of goods or services.

- Gather and display different types of goods (excluding shipping) for the benefit of customers so that they can easily view and buy these goods (service of sale of goods); These services can be provided at retail stores, wholesale store or through vending machines, reservation letter from catalogs or via electronic media, for example: a website or sales program on television.

- Services include the registration, copying, drafting, collecting, transferring or systematization of written notices and registrations, as well as the collection of mathematical or statistical data;

- Advertising agency services and services such as publishing brochures, directly or by post, providing samples, this group may related to the promotion of other services such as services related to bank loans or radio advertising.

This group does not particularly include services such as evaluation and reporting by engineers are not directly related to the operation of the business in a commercial or industrial company.

2. Why should companies register an exclusive trademark for services of advertisement, business management, transaction management and office operation

Because of the large number of companies currently operating in this field of business, competitiveness is increasing. It is important for companies to prove their quality and reputation to the customer, to stand out among a very competitive and difficult market. One of the best solutions for this is registering an exclusive trademark. Although it is not compulsory to register a trademark in Vietnam, there are still many companies, investors (trademark owners) choose to apply this procedure because of its outstanding benefits. After registering an exclusive trademark at the competent state agency, the trademark owner will receive the following advantages:

- The trademark owner will be protected by the law and competent state agencies, be informed about trademark violations of other individuals, agencies and organizations;

- The trademark owner will be entitled to use the exclusive trademark for the group of services that he/she has registered, any violation such as copying or using without consent of the trademark owner shall be handled by competent state agencies as requested by the rightful trademark owner;

- Increasing the awareness of consumers about the company, customers will know and distinguish trademarks with other common brands;

- The exclusive registration of the trademark will be an affirmation to customers that the company providing the service is a reliable and reputable company, thus creating an absolute trust for customer.

To enjoy the above benefits, it is the best for trademark owners to register their trademarks as soon as the owners intend to commercialize the services on the market. You should not wait until the service has been provided into the market and the company has established a reputation because it will be too late to register for protection of the trademark at that moment.

3. How to register an exclusive trademark for services of advertisement, business management, transaction management and office operation in Vietnam?

3.1. Conditions for trademarks:

The trademark that owners want to register must meet the following conditions to be registered as an exclusive trademark:

- The trademark must be an outside sign that is visible.

- These signs must be able to distinguish with trademarks of other entities.

3.2. Dossiers for registration of exclusive trademarks include:

- Trademark registration declaration form.

- Photos or images of the trademark sample.

- Description of the trademark.

- Receipt of payment of charges and fees.

- Power of attorney (if any)

- Copy of Business Registration Certificate

- List of services which use the trademark.

Note: Each set of dossier is only for issuing one protection title;

3.4. Requirements for dossiers:

- All documents must be made in Vietnamese. If the document is made in another language, it must be translated into Vietnamese;

- All documents must be presented vertically (except drawings, diagrams and tables can be displayed horizontally) on an A4-sized paper (210mm x 297mm), in which there is a margin of four on the side, each margin is 20mm wide, except for supplementary materials that are not intended to be included in the application;

- A trademark registration declaration must be made according to a form, A4-size page A4, typed, each page must contain a page number. In the application, it is necessary to clearly describe the trademark, the components of the trademark, the overall meaning of the trademark (if any); if the trademark has the word of the figurative language, the word and phrase must be transcribed; Trademarks with foreign words and expressions must be translated into Vietnamese.

- Documents must be typed or printed with a hard-to-fade ink, clearly and cleanly, without erasing or correcting; In case of finding negligible errors in the spelling errors in documents already submitted to the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP), the applicant may correct such errors, but at the repaired place must have signature (and seal, if any) of the applicant;

- The term used in the application must be a common term (not using native words, rare words, self-created words). Symbols, units of measurement, electronic fonts, spelling rules used in applications must conform to Vietnamese standards;

- The application may be accompanied by supporting documents which are electronic data carriers of part or all of the application contents.

- Services when registered must be classified into groups in accordance with the classification table published by the state management authority of industrial property rights.

4. Time for registering exclusive trademark protection

If the application is completed fully and correctly, the process of registering exclusive trademark protection will be completed, the registration period can be shortened in the shortest time. Minh Khue Law Firm would like to provide information on the stages of registration for exclusive trademark protection and duration of each stage according to the current law provisions:

4.1. The preparation of the exclusive trademark intends to register

This is the stage that we estimate for you if you have not completed designing the trademark you need to register because only when having a trademark to register, you can complete the registration according to the law. You do not need to calculate this period if you have already finished designing your exclusive trademark.

The duration of the exclusive brand preparation has no minimum/maximum limit, this time depends on the creator of the exclusive trademark as well as the demands of the trademark owner.

4.2. The trademark searching stage

There are two methods to carry out the searching stage: preliminary search or advanced search. Depending on the method you choose, there will be a corresponding time, specifically as follow:

- For a preliminary search, it usually takes only 30 minutes to a few hours to be done, if there are many product/service groups registered for that trademark, the search may take a longer time, can be from 1 to 3 days. The correct rate of this method is only about 60%.

- For advanced trademark search, the searching time will take longer because it is necessary to accurately check and the evaluation correct rate of this method can be about 98% on the capacity of copying, the similarity of the exclusive mark intended to register compared to registered trademarks. This stage usually takes about 05 days to 08 days.

4.3. Filing the application stage

The duration of filing an application for exclusive trademark protection will depend on the filing method. If the application is submitted directly at the NOIP, it will take only one morning (or afternoon), if submitted by mail, it will depend on the carrier, delivery time of the post office may be from 03 to 05 days.

4.4. Appraisal stage of the form of trademark application

The form evaluation time is usually from 1 month to 2 months from the date of submission. Therefore, it is necessary to fully and accurately prepare the required documents to get the best chance to be evaluated as a valid application form, without being rejected, requesting amendments or supplements.

4.5. The period of posting statements in the Industrial Property Gazette

After the application for exclusive trademark protection is determined as valid, the trademark registration information including the trademark attached to the service will be published in the Industrial Property Gazette within the 02 months from the valid confirmation date.

4.6. Stage of content examination of applications for exclusive trademark registration

The stage of reviewing the content of an exclusive trademark application is considered to be the longest period of the procedure of exclusive trademark registration, it usually takes about 9 months to 12 months. During this stage, the competent agencies will consider is the application similar or confusing to well-known brands or with other protected trademarks? Are all the conditions to protect the trademark are met? Therefore, the content examination needs to be carefully and completely accurate to avoid potential disputes in the future.

4.7. Receiving the Trademark Registration Certificate

After the application for protection of exclusive trademark has been examined and determined as valid in terms of content, the NOIP will notify the applicant of the fee for the issuance of Protection Title. The waiting time to be granted a protection title is 10 days since the applicant pays the fee and charges fully and timely.

5. Where to register an exclusive trademark protection

According to the current intellectual property law of Vietnam, foreign subjects can only register a trademark in Vietnam through a legal industrial property representation organizations in Vietnam. Minh Khue Law Firm is currently a legal and reputable industrial property representation organization to register an exclusive trademark for foreign companies, organizations and individuals in Vietnam. Minh Khue Law Firm was licensed in August 2017 by the NOIP as an industrial property representation organization with a representative code is 226.

All clients who want to register an exclusive trademark of service of advertisement, business management, transaction management and office operation in Vietnam can come to Minh Khue Law Firm for advice and guidance on implementing procedures.
The procedure of trademark registration is carried out by Intellectual Property Department of Minh Khue Law Firm, address at Room 2007, 20th Floor, C2 Building, Vincom Tran Duy Hung, Tran Duy Hung Street, Trung Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District, Hanoi.

The person in charge of the Intellectual Property Department of Minh Khue Law Firm:

Lawyer: To Thi Phuong Dzung

Email: dung@luatminhkhue.vn ;

Phone number: + 84 986 386 648

The dossier is filed in: National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam, address at: 384-386 Nguyen Trai street, Thanh Xuan Trung ward, Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi.

You can refer to some trademarks of the services of advertisement, business management, transaction management and office operation that were registered by Minh Khue Law Firm:

How to register exclusive trademark of services of advertisement, business management, transaction management, office operation in Vietnam

KMART GROUP Trademark

Class 35: Advertising agency services; commercial professional consultancy; import-export agent services; providing online exchanges market for buyers and sellers of goods and services; product introduction services on the media, for retail purposes; Purchase and sale of goods (cosmetics, cosmetics set, cosmetic cream, perfume, lipstick, makeup powder, makeup remover, beauty masks).

How to register exclusive trademark of services of sales of goods, advertisement, business management, transaction management, office operation in Vietnam

LUU GIA PHARMACY Trademark

Class 35: Purchase and sale of goods: pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, dietary supplements for medical purposes.

Register exclusive trademark of services of sales of goods, advertisement, business management, transaction management, office operation .

El Fénix Trademark

Class 35: Purchase and sale of goods: leather briefcases, backpacks, bags, boxes made of leather or imitation leather, necklaces for animals, wallet, leather and leather paintings.

Register exclusive trademark of services of sales of goods, advertisement, business management, transaction management, office operation

DAC SAN TINH HOA Trademark

Class 35: Purchase and sale of goods: preserved [berries], marinated pork, shrimp [no longer alive], crustaceans [no longer alive], skeletal fish, fish [not alive], fish [preserved], canned fish, food on the basis of dried frozen fish, fruit jelly, fast food on the basis of fruits, hunting [not alive], meat, meat and meat extracts canned, milk, milk-based drinks - milk is mainly, preserved mushrooms, pork, poultry [no longer alive], [processed] seeds, animals with hard shells [no longer alive] , yogurt, barley cereals, cereal products, fast food based on cereals, coffee, unroasted coffee, thin sheet foods made of rice, honey, rice, fast food on the basis of rice, tea, [grain], fresh fruit, fresh herbs, edible bird's nest, edible insects [not alive], eggs, seeds marinated in flavor, candy, tea; advertisement; advertising agency services; trade information and consumer advice [consumer advisory store]; product introduction services on the media, for retail purposes; Indexing websites for commercial or promotional purposes.