Hanoi (VNA)ꦗ – Vietnam’s laws on intellectual property (IP) have conformed to most IP-related commitments of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), according to an expert team in charge of reviewing domestic IP regulations.

Domestic laws are compatible to commitments in the EVFTA regarding the overall principles of IP protection, IP protection norms and requirements of the effectuation of the deal at border areas, said Nguyen Thi Thu Trang , Director of the WTO and Integration Centre under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry ( VCCI ) at a workshop in Hanoi on March 1. However, she said, domestic law needs to be supplemented to satisfy the pact’s commitments on exclusive rights of performers and producers to publicise sound and image recordings; protection of 169 names of EU geographical indications listed in the EVFTA; pharmaceutical patent term extension to offset the loss of term due to delay in obtaining regulatory approval for a product, and presumption of the rights of people whose names are mentioned on works. Several other commitments in the EVFTA have been mentioned in Vietnam’s IP law but they are yet to entirely compatible, Trang said. She suggested adjusting such inharmonious contents to conform to all international commitments, not just those with the EU. Trang also called for efforts to strengthen law enforcement to ensure the strictness of IP protection-related regulations, and abide by the deal’s commitments in a pragmatic manner. Other participants called on competent agencies to increase their supervision over the enforcement of IP regulations to ensure legitimate rights and interests of authors as well as the balance between the interests of the society, the community and individuals. Vietnam and the EU concluded negotiations on their FTA in Brussels last December. The FTA is said to be an inclusive and high quality agreement that ensures the balance of interests for both Vietnam and the EU, with due consideration of the gap of development between the two sides. The pact covers the trade in goods, rules of origin, customs and trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers in trade, trade in services, investment, trade remedies, competition, State-owned enterprises, Government procurement, intellectual property, sustainable development, cooperation and capacity building, legal and institutional issues, as well as new approaches to investment protection and settlement of investment disputes. The EU is currently the second biggest trade partner of Vietnam, with two-way trade increasing from 17.75 billion USD in 2010 to 36.8 billion USD in 2014.-VNA