LP Group is one of the most trusted providers of business consulting and support services for enterprises and entrepreneurs in Vietnam. Its services focus on corporate management consulting, business investment consulting and developing related support projects. LP Group stands out for consulting on policy systems and corporate crisis management, combining international service standards with local understanding. Lawyer Nguyễn Văn Lộc is the Chairman of LP Group, offering a presentation exclusively for startup founders about Protecting intellectual property rights when starting a business. Lawyer Nguyễn Văn Lộc also currently teaches at YUP Entrepreneurship Training and Support Academy. Below is his article.
Starting a business can be seen as an economic problem in which entrepreneurs face many challenges in seeking profitable answers through investments in products, services, ideas and models they have nurtured or created. During these difficult early days, business leaders often do not prioritize investments without immediate returns, such as intellectual property protection. Yet in online business and the digital economy, once goods or services reach the market, copying, theft, counterfeiting, reputation exploitation and profiteering can easily occur. Startups often lack the resources to pursue intellectual property disputes without solid evidence of ownership.
Protecting intellectual property from the startup stage not only creates a legal framework to defend yourself against fraud; it is also a long-term investment that helps businesses create substantial value in the near future, when most profits derive more from the reputation, quality, and credibility of products and services than from tangible capital.
- Intellectual property assets, rights, and subject matter
Intellectual property assets are created through human intellectual creativity. For example, machines may produce hundreds of beer cans daily, but the recipe for a beer or the method of operating that production line is an intellectual property asset.
Organizations and individuals who create intellectual property have rights to that property. Intellectual property rights include moral rights (rights attached to the individual creator, such as naming a work, publishing it, and being credited as its author…) and economic rights (rights related to economic value, such as contributing capital, transferring and acquiring rights, buying, and selling…).
Intellectual property is understood to comprise three main groups: copyright and related rights (the first group); industrial property rights (the second group); and rights to plant varieties (the third group).
For startups and businesses generally, intellectual property is most commonly applied to the first and second groups. The first group includes ‘literary, artistic and scientific works” (copyright); “performances, sound recordings, video recordings, broadcasts and encrypted program-carrying satellite signals” (rights related to copyright). The second group includes “inventions, industrial designs, semiconductor integrated circuit layout designs, trade secrets, trademarks, trade names and geographical indications”.
- How can you protect intellectual property rights when starting a business?
First, the initial and most important step is establishing rights to intellectual property assets.Businesses determine how to establish ownership of their intellectual property according to the product or service group. Under current regulations, intellectual property rights are established on the following bases:
- Copyright – This asset is automatically protected without registration from the moment it is created and expressed in a tangible form, regardless of content, quality, form, medium, language or publication status. In practice, however, owners should register because a certificate of ownership removes the need to prove authorship. In other words, without a certificate, you must prove that you created the work using original documents from the time of creation; if you cannot, you lose the right. Computer programs, paintings and fine-art works should be registered immediately to prevent copying.
- Related Rights – Protection arises automatically, without registration, from fixation or performance, provided it does not prejudice copyright.
- Industrial property rights require registration for protection. Well-known trademarks, however, are protected through use and public recognition, regardless of whether they have been registered.
- Trade names – A trade name is protected through lawful use, without registration. When a business is established, its name is recorded for protection by the business registration authority.
- Trade secrets – No registration is required. Protection applies when trade secrets are lawfully obtained and kept confidential. Once disclosed externally, they are no longer protected.
Therefore, based on the subject matter and requirements above, businesses need to establish the corresponding rights to protect their intellectual property. In particular, a single subject can receive protection in multiple forms. For example, a logo can be protected both as a trademark (registered with the Intellectual Property Office) and through copyright (registered with the Copyright Office), without duplication because trademark and copyright protection have different scopes.
Second is understanding the scope of your rights.Businesses need to understand their rights over intellectual property assets. Specifically, regarding the moral and economic rights mentioned above, organizations and individuals that own objects of intellectual property rights have the following rights:
- Use, or allow others to use, the protected subject matter;
- Prevent others from using the protected subject matter;
- Disposing of protected subject matter (commercialization through capital contributions, transfer, sale, licensing, etc.)
Besides understanding the scope of your rights, you need to identify which actions infringe them. Each type of intellectual property has corresponding infringements, but the main typical acts can be specified as follows:
- Use without the owner's permission
- Use that causes confusion with the protected subject matter
- Use without paying remuneration
Third is protecting established rights.Even with protection certificates for intellectual property, it is difficult to avoid third-party infringement forever. Businesses therefore need to know how to protect their interests once they own intellectual property. Specifically:
- The right to self-protection: Object to others’ use of your protected subject matter from the stage when they apply for protection certificates or begin doing business, including introductions and advertising…
- The right to request protection from others, asking government agencies or website operators to remove information that may affect the owner
- The right to request action against infringements through administrative, civil or criminal measures.
In short, intellectual property disputes are constantly increasing, not only among startups but also among long-established businesses, because of the importance of intellectual property assets and the profits they generate. Alongside a long-term strategic vision for their business model, businesses therefore need to ensure that their intellectual property assets are protected throughout their development.
Although the protection process for intellectual property often takes time because of formal and substantive examination stages, it is still short compared with a brand's lifespan or a business's reputation among consumers. More importantly, duration matters less than preserving or losing the creativity and effort invested in building business assets over a long period.
Lawyer Nguyễn Văn Lộc – Chairman at LP Group.
Chương trình liên quan tại YUP Education: X-Startup – khóa học khởi nghiệp «Khởi Chánh Nghiệp» · The Journey – lộ trình phát triển doanh nhân
