Complex Product’s Industrial Design and the VNIPO’s Most Common Rejection of Drawings of Applied-for Designs | Complex Product’s Industrial Design and the VNIPO’s Most Common Rejection of Drawings of Appliedfor Designs

Complex Product’s Industrial Design and

the VNIPO’s Most Common Rejection of Drawings of Applied-for Designs

Hua Minh Huong – Bross & Partners

Email: huong.hv@bross.vn; vinh@bross.vn

Industrial Design in the Form of Complex Product

According to the 3rd Amendment of the IP Law (the “IP Law 2022”), industrial designs include not only products but also parts thereof used to be assembled into complex products as long as they are visible during exploiting the use of them.[1]

Unlike a solid product design, a composite product or complex product is generally understood as a product made up of two or more components, in which those components can be disassembled by mechanical bonding or bonding in the form of bonding, stitching, welding. Thus, a design applied for registration can be a composite product (a finished product composed of many parts) and/or a product/particular (compounding a complex product) if there is a possibility of independent circulation. For example:


Car	Vacuum cleaner	Car ventilation panels (the part can circulate independently so it can be protected as an independent design)	Lid (the part can circulate independently so it can be protected as an independent design)

The red marked part cannot circulate independently	The pattern drawn on the teapot is not capable of independent circulation	Images on soft drinks cans are not capable of independent circulation	Interface, software icons are not capable of independent circulation

VNIPO’S Common Refusal Regarding Photos/Drawings Representing Industrial Design

In our experience, formal requirements of an application for registration of industrial design shall be strictly examined by the Intellectual Property of Vietnam (VNIPO), particularly formality examination against set of drawing/photos of applied-for designs. Bross & Partners would like to compile the formal rejections frequently raised by the VNIPO and advise about how to overcome those refusals:

Applied-for designs	Refusal	How to overcome
	Invalid photo/drawing because fertilizer bag is mixed with other object
	Product photo bearing the design is not in the same scale, ie. 2 views marked with red arrows are different from the other views
	Photographs taken without frontal face
	Set of drawings lacks perspective view and left view. H6 & H7 as shown in the right column must be added
	Set of photos/drawings is inconsistent because 2 views (upper) are drawings while the 2 views (below) are photographs.
	Photo is rejected because it is not sharp (too many jagged lines)
	Vietnam does not accept drawings of industrial designs represented by dashed lines (broken lines) since Vietnam does not protect partial designs
	Set of drawings does not show the industrial design in the same state because the perspective drawing shown in the open state is different from the projection showing the industrial design in the closed state.
	View of package, container can be replaced by a photo/drawing in the expanded state in the form of a plane as shown in Design no. 2 but could not do so for Design no. 1 because the cap cannot expand
Tree pruning scissors (Patent for Design No. 16711)	Sometimes complicated industrial designs may require more photos/perspective drawings/sections, enlarged drawings to clarify the nature and design features of the industrial design.

Bross & Partners, an intellectual property company ranked First (Tier 1) by Legal 500 Asia Pacific, has experience in resolving complicated IP disputes including trademarks, copyrights, patents, plant varieties

Please contact: Vinh@bross.vn; mobile: 0903 287 057; Zalo: +84903287057; Skype: vinh.bross; Wechat: Vinhbross2603.

[1] The IP Law 2022 amends the definition of an industrial design, specifically it defines an industrial design as the external appearance of a product or part thereof used to be assembled into a complex product, represented by shapes, lines, color, or a combination thereof, and visible in the process of exploiting the use of a product or complex product. See more

“6 New Changes in Industrial Design Protection in the IP Law of 2022”: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=cd9ac451-2059-450d-8fd4-d7566dc42135