What constitutes work?

Work refers to a creative product in the fields of literature, arts, or science, expressed in any means or forms.

For example: a poem, a song, an article, a story, a film, etc.

Clause 7 Article 4 of the 2005 Law on Intellectual Property, amended and supplemented in 2009

Types of works covered by copyright protection

• Literary and scientific works, textbooks, teaching courses and other works expressed in written languages or other characters;
• Lectures, addresses and other sermons;
• Press works;
• Musical works;
• Dramatic works;
• Cinematographic works;
• Plastic-art works and works of applied art;
• Photographic works;
• Architectural works;
• Sketches, plans, maps and drawings related to topography or scientific works;
• Folklore and folk-art works of folk culture;
• Computer programs and compilations of data.

Clause 1 Article 14 of the 2005 Law on Intellectual Property, amended and supplemented in 2009

Your intellectual property not copyrightable?

If your intellectual property is not one of the works that is covered by copyright protection mentioned above, you can still apply for protection in other forms:

• Inventions
• Trademarks
• Utility solutions
• Industrial designs
• Layout-designs of semiconductor integrated circuits
• Trade names
• Trade secrets

For example: Although the formulas of Coca-Cola and Pepsi are not copyrighted, they are protected as “Trade secrets”.

The names Coca-Cola and Pepsi are protected as Trademarks.

Articles 58, 63, 68, 72, 76, and 84 of the 2005 Law on Intellectual Property, amended and supplemented in 2009

Subject matters not covered by copyright protection

• News of the day as mere items of press information.
• Legal documents and official translations of these documents.

       For example: Law on Enterprises, Decrees on guidelines, the Labor Code, etc.

• Processes, systems, operation methods, concepts, principles, and data.

       For example: concept of copyright, population statistics in Vietnam, statistical principles, etc.

Article 15 of the 2005 Law on Intellectual Property, amended and supplemented in 2009

PLF is the Organization of Industrial Property Representation in Vietnam – an entity authorized by the National Office of Intellectual Property to act on behalf of individuals and enterprises to establish and enforce intellectual property rights.