VIETNAM - REPORT TO THE EMERGING IP RIGHTS COMMITEE

51st APAA Council Meeting - New Delhi, India

Introduction

Vietnam signed the CBD on 1993 and became a party of CBD on 1994, but still not a member of FAO’s International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Foods and Agriculture.

At the present, writing documents relating to Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable Sharing of the Benefits Resources for Food and Agriculture has not been issued yet. According to some officials of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developments and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, a plan for a Bill on this issue has been drafted.

IP Law of Vietnam will be issued at the end of 2005. Although there is no provisions relating to Traditional Knowledge and Benefit Sharing, the importance of Traditional Knowledge Protection has been recognized by Vietnamese competent authorities such as the NOIP; Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developments; and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

Protection of Traditional Knowledge Resources

Although there is no writing documents relating to Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable Sharing, in fact, depend on each particular case, a company commercializing a plant will have to obtain permission of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developments and could pay a Tax for using the plant.

On June 14, 2005, a Seminar on Protection of Traditional Knowledge was jointly organized by Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property and the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) of Vietnam in Hanoi. In the Seminar, a Database and software of Vietnamese Medicine Plants has been introduced by the NOIP.

In fact, some kinds of Traditional Knowledge was protected under IPR such as Geographical Indications, Indication of Origin (“Phu Quoc” for fish souse, “Moc Chau” for green tea), Traditional Medicines (granted patents for snake bike medicines, medical oils..) ect.

Conclusion

The importance of protection of Traditional Knowledge as well as Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable Sharing of the Benefits Resources has been recognized by Vietnamese Government. In the meantime, the Vietnamese Government continues to find a framework to appropriately protect Traditional Knowledge as well as Vietnamese Genetic Resources.

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