In 2026, Vietnam’s trademark regulatory system, based on the revised 2022 Intellectual
Property Law, continues to optimize the official examination and registration standards for
collective trademarks, effectively empowering the industrial upgrading of local specialty
agricultural products and regional characteristic industries across the country. Administered
by the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (NOIP) under the Ministry of
Science and Technology, collective trademarks are clearly defined as exclusive industrial
property rights reserved for industry associations and farmer federations. Such trademarks
serve to standardize product quality control, unify production specifications and regulate
regional brand operations, with complete application, examination and registration procedures
stipulated under Articles 76 to 82 of the current Vietnamese Intellectual Property Law. This
case study presents the full-cycle process of collective trademark filing, official review,
registration authorization and standardized licensing management, delivering authoritative
and practical registration guidelines for industrial organizations and international brands
planning trademark deployment in Vietnam.
Case Overview: Full Registration Procedure for the Nghia Lo-Yen Bai Long Sticky Rice
Cake Collective Trademark
In late 2024, the Yen Bai Provincial Farmers’ Association launched a collective trademark
development project for the local geographical indication specialty “Nghia Lo-Yen Bai Long
Sticky Rice Cake”, aiming to achieve unified brand management and standardized quality
control for scattered household producers and small-scale processing workshops across
multiple administrative villages. In strict accordance with NOIP’s official filing requirements,
the association compiled comprehensive application materials, including exclusive trademark
logo designs, official delineation of designated production zones, unified product quality
control standards, internal trademark usage management regulations and producer qualification
screening criteria. In early 2025, the association entrusted a NOIP-licensed local IP agent to
formally submit the collective trademark application covering Class 30 grain and food products
under the latest Nice Classification.
In compliance with Vietnam’s statutory trademark review procedures, NOIP completed formal
examination within one month upon application acceptance, verifying the completeness of
documents, accuracy of commodity classification, and compliance of non-Vietnamese character
translations in accordance with Official Circular No.23/2023/TT-BKHCN. Having passed the
formal examination, the application was published in the Vietnam Official Industrial Property
Gazette for a two-month public announcement period, during which no third-party opposition
was filed. Subsequently, NOIP conducted an eight-month substantive examination to verify the
trademark’s geographical relevance, collective mark eligibility and inherent distinctiveness,
confirming that the mark is inherently associated with Yen Bai’s specific producing regions and
traditional processing techniques, and fully complies with the statutory requirements for
collective trademark registration under the 2022 Intellectual Property Law.
On March 23, 2026, NOIP issued an official registration decision (Decision No.43663) and granted
a formal collective trademark registration certificate to the Yen Bai Provincial Farmers’
Association. The trademark is valid for 10 years, calculated from the original filing date. After
obtaining the registration certificate, the rights holder formulated standardized trademark
licensing rules and organized an official authorization ceremony in mid-May 2026, issuing legally
binding usage licenses to more than 60 qualified local food manufacturers and processing
workshops that met unified quality standards. This initiative achieved centralized brand
authorization and standardized market circulation of regional specialty products. When unlicensed
local workshops subsequently used identical marks for commercial operations, the association
relied on the valid NOIP collective trademark registration certificate to file administrative
complaints with local market management authorities and successfully terminated all
unauthorized trademark usage.
Strategic Insights from the Case
This typical collective trademark registration case summarizes core regulatory rules and practical
strategies of Vietnam’s specialized trademark system, providing reliable references for domestic
industrial alliances and global industrial cluster enterprises:
●Strict eligibility requirements for collective trademark applicants: Under the 2022 Vietnamese
Intellectual Property Law, only legally registered industry associations and farmer federations are
qualified to apply for collective trademarks; individual applicants are not eligible. Complete
production zoning certification and unified product quality standards are mandatory pre-
application documents.
●Longer and more rigorous examination procedures: The entire registration process for
Vietnamese collective trademarks adopts a standardized procedure of formal examination, public
announcement, substantive review and registration grant. The full cycle generally takes 10 to 12
months, longer than that of ordinary trademarks, due to additional verification of geographical
relevance and organizational qualifications.
●Multilingual trademark elements require standardized translation: Any non-Vietnamese text
or foreign characters contained in a collective trademark logo must be accompanied by official
Vietnamese translations and phonetic transcripts during submission, which constitutes a key
compliance checkpoint in NOIP’s formal examination.
●Registered collective trademarks provide solid legal enforcement basis: Legally obtained
collective trademark registration certificates serve as core legal evidence for standardized brand
authorization, product quality supervision and administrative law enforcement against
unauthorized commercial use in the Vietnamese market.
Practical Guidance for Global Enterprises Applying for Trademarks in Vietnam
For international industrial institutions and foreign brands intending to complete trademark
registration and brand layout in Vietnam, the standardized compliance guidelines are summarized
as follows:
Foreign applicants without local permanent residences or registered business entities in Vietnam
must appoint NOIP-qualified local IP agents for trademark filing; self-submission by foreign entities
is not permitted under current Vietnamese IP regulations.
Conduct comprehensive pre-filing database searches through NOIP’s official online system to
identify existing identical or confusingly similar prior trademarks, effectively avoiding registration
rejection due to prior right conflicts.
Classify goods and services strictly in accordance with the latest Nice Classification version adopted
by NOIP, and reasonably expand relevant commodity categories based on long-term business layout
to prevent cross-category squatting under Vietnam’s first-to-file principle.
Fully retain trademark design drafts, geographical origin certification, product inspection reports
and official application receipts throughout the registration process to ensure timely response and
supplementary materials submission when receiving office actions from NOIP.
Industrial cluster brands focusing on regional featured industries are recommended to complete
institutional registration first and then apply for collective trademarks, so as to enhance product
premium value and overall market competitiveness in Vietnam and the broader ASEAN region.
Conclusion
With the continuous implementation of the revised 2022 Vietnamese Intellectual Property Law and
the optimized collective trademark examination standards issued by NOIP in 2026, Vietnam’s
specialized trademark protection system for regional characteristic industries has become increasingly
standardized and mature. The successful registration of the Nghia Lo-Yen Bai collective trademark
fully verifies the standardized filing specifications and commercial value of Vietnamese collective
trademarks, demonstrating that adequate pre-application preparation and full compliance with official
examination rules enable smooth trademark authorization and standardized commercial licensing
management. For global industrial and consumer goods enterprises, a thorough understanding of
Vietnam’s collective and ordinary trademark registration rules and procedural norms is essential to
establishing localized regional brands and sustaining long-term stable market development in Vietnam.
Hyperlink List：
● IPcrossark:
IPcrossark—Reliable IP Registration Platform | Trademark, Patent & Copyright Help
● NOIP Official English Portal (Vietnam National Intellectual Property Office):
https://ipvietnam.gov.vn/en_US/web/english/introduction
● NOIP Official Trademark Examination Procedure Page:
https://ipvietnam.gov.vn/web/english/trademark-examination-procedure
