Perfecting the legal framework, creating a solid corridor to protect and exploit copyright and related rights

The development of the Decree regulating royalties in the fields of: Cinema, fine arts, photography, performing arts, press, and publishing aims to continue perfecting the legal framework to create a solid and favorable corridor for the protection, defense and exploitation of copyright and related rights in which the State is the representative owner or management representative, ensuring consistency and synchronization between the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Intellectual Property in 2022, Decree No. 17/2023/ND-CP and regulations on royalties.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is drafting a Decree regulating royalties in the fields of: Cinema, fine arts, photography, performing arts, press and publishing.

Accordingly, in recent years, our Party and State have always paid attention and had many policies and guidelines on continuing to improve the intellectual property, copyright and related rights institutions, contributing to the construction and development of the cultural market, creative industries, cultural and entertainment industries in Vietnam. Recent documents and resolutions of the Party and State continue to set out tasks and solutions to improve the law on intellectual property, copyright and related rights.

In recent times, the legal framework on copyright and related rights has developed and improved, in line with the practical situation: The Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Intellectual Property was passed by the National Assembly in 2022; Decree No. 17/2023/ND-CP detailing a number of articles and measures to implement the Law on Intellectual Property on copyright and related rights was issued by the Government in 2023. Accordingly, a number of contents have been amended, supplemented and improved, such as regulations on royalties1, principles for determining royalties2, copyright for cinematographic works, theatrical works, regulations on cases where the owner of copyright and related rights is the State...

Clauses 1 and 2, Article 42 of the Law on Intellectual Property stipulate cases where the State is the representative of the owner or the representative of the management of copyright and related rights. Clause 3, Article 42 stipulates the agency that is the representative of the State to exercise the rights of the owner of copyright and related rights. Clause 4, Article 42 stipulates the content assigned to the Government for detailed regulations. Currently, the draft Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Intellectual Property is being submitted by the Government to the National Assembly for consideration. The draft Law contains the content of amending and supplementing Clauses 3 and 4, Article 42 of the Law on Intellectual Property. Accordingly, Clause 4, Article 42 is amended as follows: “The Government shall detail Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article; and prescribe royalties in the cases specified in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article.”

Delegates attending the seminar discussed coordination mechanisms and solutions to remove obstacles in handling copyright infringement in the digital environment.

Based on the Law on Intellectual Property, the Government issued Decree No. 17/2023/ND-CP dated April 26, 2023 detailing a number of articles and measures to implement the Law on Intellectual Property on copyright and related rights. Clause 2, Article 1 of Decree No. 17/2023/ND-CP stipulates: “This Decree does not prescribe the schedule and method of payment of royalties in cases where the State is the representative of the copyright owner, the owner of related rights, the State represents the management of copyright and related rights; in cases where copyright and related rights are limited, the provisions of Article 35 of this Decree shall apply.”.

Other legal documents related to the content of the draft Decree such as the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets 2017, amended and supplemented in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025; the State Budget Law 2025; the Price Law 2023, amended and supplemented in 2024 and detailed regulations and implementation instructions... According to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 4 of Decree No. 60/2021/ND-CP, the state budget will shift from support according to the average allocation mechanism to the mechanism of the State ordering and assigning tasks to provide public services based on output quality or bidding for the provision of public services. The price of public service using the state budget is determined according to the provisions of law on price, economic-technical norms, cost norms issued by competent authorities and the roadmap for calculating the price of public service using the state budget. Accordingly, the State issues economic-technical norms, cost norms for providing public products and services, including labor costs.

Regarding the management and exploitation of public assets, Clause 4, Article 34 and Clause 4, Article 54 of the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets stipulate: State agencies/Public service units are allowed to use intellectual property rights, application software, databases and other public assets for exploitation in accordance with the provisions of this Law and relevant laws; the management and use of collected money shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions of law. This provision is guided in Clause 3, Article 14, Clauses 3, 6, 7, Article 50, Article 65, Article 75 of Decree No. 186/2025/ND-CP dated July 1, 2025 of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets. Accordingly, the exploitation of public assets as intellectual property rights is regulated in accordance with the provisions of law on intellectual property (for public service units, it is also required to comply with a number of specific provisions in Decree No. 186/2025/ND-CP).

Therefore, the regulation of royalties for the creation stage and royalties for the exploitation and use stage needs to be studied and proposed in accordance with legal regulations on finance, the mechanism of assigning tasks, ordering, bidding for the provision of public products and services using the state budget, the mechanism of financial autonomy, the promulgated economic and technical norms, the mechanism of exploitation at public assets which are intellectual property rights, the management and use of collected money; the responsibility of allocating funds of ministries, branches and localities to ensure the implementation of the Decree or promulgation of documents regulating royalties at the local level.

On August 20, 2025, the Government Office issued Official Dispatch No. 7785/VPCP KGVX notifying the direction of Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh, assigning the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice and relevant agencies to develop a Decree regulating royalties in the fields of cinema, fine arts, photography, performing arts, press, and publishing (replacing Decree No. 18/2014/ND-CP3 and Decree No. 21/2015/ND-CP4). This is the direct basis for the drafting of the Decree.

Thus, the draft Decree is a document detailing Clause 4, Article 42 of the Law on Intellectual Property on royalties in cases where the State is the representative of the owner or representative of the management of copyright and related rights, and will replace Decree No. 18/2014/ND-CP and Decree No. 21/2015/ND-CP.

On a practical basis, in the process of summarizing the implementation of Decree No. 21/2015/ND-CP, a number of difficulties and shortcomings for cinematographic works, fine arts, photography, theater and other performing arts, leading to difficulties and obstacles in implementation, including:

Regarding royalties in the creative process, the regulations on creative components for cinematographic works, stage works and other performing arts are still unclear, some contents are not suitable for practice in the context of current development of science, technology and engineering, creativity arises from work related to modern equipment; the division of levels and frameworks of royalties and remuneration (royalties) is not suitable for some specific types of artistic creation, not ensuring the contribution of creative components. In addition, new mechanisms on ordering, assigning tasks, bidding for creating works, along with regulations in Decree No. 21/2015/ND-CP also cause difficulties for agencies and units in implementation.

Regarding royalties during exploitation and use: the contents on exploitation and use of copyrights and related rights of which the State is the representative owner or management representative; management and use of royalties collected from this exploitation and use; payment of royalties (royalties) when works are exploited and used have not been specifically regulated, because the documents serving as the basis for promulgating Decree No. 21/2015/ND-CP have been amended, supplemented and replaced many times.

The implementation of Decree No. 18/2014/ND-CP has some limitations and shortcomings, failing to meet the practical requirements of the press and publishing sector, leading to difficulties and obstacles in implementation, specifically as follows:

Payment under Decree No. 18/2014/ND-CP does not distinguish between financial sources, while the current financial autonomy mechanism (implementing task assignments, placing orders, and bidding based on economic and technical norms issued by competent authorities) for public service units allows units to ensure their own operating funding sources to decide on higher or lower spending levels. In fact, when producing press works without using state budget funding, some press agencies such as Vietnam Television and Vietnam Economic Magazine do not apply Decree No. 18/2014/ND-CP.

There are no regulations on royalties for exploiting and using journalistic works and works in publishing; there are no regulations on royalties (royalties) for electronic publications; and the genres of journalism and publications are not yet in accordance with current specialized legal regulations.

From the above reasons, it is necessary to develop and promulgate a Decree regulating royalties in the fields of: Cinema, fine arts, photography, performing arts, press, publishing, replacing Decree No. 21/2015/ND-CP and Decree No. 18/2014/ND-CP, in accordance with the provisions of law to ensure consistency, synchronization, feasibility, and meet practical needs.

The purpose of drafting the Decree is to continue to perfect the legal framework to create a solid and favorable corridor for the protection, defense and exploitation of copyright and related rights in which the State is the representative owner or management representative, ensuring consistency and synchronization between the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Intellectual Property in 2022, Decree No. 17/2023/ND-CP and regulations on royalties.

Ensure the legitimate rights and interests of authors and creators of works through ordering, assigning tasks or bidding; promote innovation and creativity in the fields of cinema, fine arts, photography, performing arts, journalism, and publishing; and at the same time improve the efficiency of state budget use.

Strengthen the mechanism for exploiting and using copyright and related rights in which the State is the representative owner or management representative, in accordance with market mechanisms, effectively, publicly, transparently, and legally, contributing to the development of Vietnam's cultural and creative industries.

Draft Decree amending and completing: Regulations on payment of royalties for creative works according to contracts for ordering, assigning tasks, and bidding according to the provisions of law; basis for determining the level of royalties (Clause 1, 3, Article 3).

Regulations on incentive royalties and cases eligible for incentive royalties during the stage of creating works, modifying certain types of works and making appropriate technical modifications (points a and b, clause 4, Article 3).

Regulations on the division of royalties among authors, copyright owners, performers, and related rights owners; in the case of making derivative works and the preparation of estimates, payment, and settlement of funds for paying royalties and incentive royalties (clauses 5, 6, and 9, Article 3).

In addition, the draft adds: Regulations on royalties paid for the exploitation and use of copyright and related rights for which the State is the representative owner or management representative (Clause 2, Article 3).

Regulations on incentive royalties during the exploitation and profitable use phase. The draft proposes that the incentive royalties be implemented according to the agreement between the parties, but the total amount shall not exceed 10% of the profits earned, ensuring that the state budget revenue is not reduced, while creating material and spiritual motivation for authors to continue creating high-quality works with the potential for commercial exploitation (Point c, Clause 4, Article 3).

Regulate the management and use of royalties collected from the exploitation and use of copyrights and related rights of which the State is the representative owner or management representative and determine the amount to be paid to the state budget, in accordance with the provisions of law on management and use of public assets and the state budget (Clause 7, Article 3).

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/hoan-thien-khung-phap-ly-tao-hanh-lang-vung-chac-bao-ve-khai-thac-quyen-tac-gia-quyen-lien-quan-20251028122748798.htm