Important legal shield to protect copyright, related rights and intellectual property in the digital age

Intellectual property is considered a core driving force for innovation and knowledge-based economic development. In the face of the explosion of the digital age, especially Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), Vietnam's intellectual property legal system is facing an urgent need to overcome "legal gaps" to protect the rights of creators and artists.

At the discussion session on November 5 on the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Intellectual Property, delegates of the Hanoi National Assembly delegation contributed many ideas to help the law keep up with the flow of innovation and practice of economic sectors such as agriculture and cultural industry.

Scene of the discussion session at Group 1 - Hanoi City National Assembly Delegation

Delegate Nguyen Thi Lan expressed her agreement and appreciation for the spirit of innovation, timeliness and long-term vision of the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Intellectual Property. She emphasized that this amendment to the Law is an important step forward, concretizing the Party's major policies in Resolution 57, Resolution 66, Resolution 68 on promoting science and technology and innovation, developing the private economy and perfecting legal institutions in the new era, contributing to bringing these Resolutions into life.

According to delegates, the notable new point of the draft law is the shift from protecting rights to exploiting the value of intellectual property, aiming to consider knowledge as the economic driving force and development driving force of the country, in line with the spirit of the Party's resolutions.

Delegate Nguyen Thi Lan, National Assembly Delegation of Hanoi City

Regarding some specific contents, delegate Nguyen Thi Lan suggested adding a special protection mechanism for plant varieties created by biotechnology and genetic engineering to promote innovation in the agricultural sector.

Currently, the draft law only stops at general regulations on granting protection certificates and does not specifically mention plant varieties created by genetically modified organisms (GMO). Meanwhile, the issue of gene editing and creating new plant varieties is developing very quickly, without specific protection regulations, it will be very difficult for research and application.

Therefore, it is necessary to supplement the appraisal mechanism and technical standards for biotech varieties; recognize international testing results to shorten the time to grant protection certificates. This is to avoid the situation of having to start from scratch when a good international variety has been recognized by the evaluation results, helping to save time and promote the introduction of new varieties into production more quickly.

Delegates attending the meeting

Expressing his agreement on the need to amend and supplement a number of articles of the Law on Intellectual Property to respond to current major changes and to concretize the Party's Resolutions, delegate Nguyen Anh Tri highly appreciated the efforts of the Drafting Committee in discovering the contents that need to be adjusted, paying special attention to the issue of distinguishing functions between types of rights management organizations, in order to avoid confusion, overlap and ensure order and transparency in state management of copyright and related rights.

According to the delegate, the draft law contains many new terms that are easily duplicated, especially between the Copyright and Related Rights Representative Service Organization (Article 57) and the Copyright Collective Management Organization (Article 56). A clear distinction is necessary to ensure transparency and order in state management.

Accordingly, the Copyright Representative Service Organization performs tasks such as providing legal advice, representing in submitting applications for copyright registration, participating in other legal relations, and protecting legitimate rights. The key point is that the Representative Service Organization is not allowed to divide royalties. Meanwhile, the Copyright Collective Management Organization has the main function of carrying out rights management, negotiating licenses, collecting and dividing royalties and other material benefits.

In the context that the National Assembly is considering amending many laws related to the field of intellectual property such as the Law on Digital Transformation, the Law on Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Technology Transfer, and the Law on High Technology, delegate Ta Dinh Thi suggested that the amendment of the Law on Intellectual Property needs to be reviewed in sync with other related groups of laws that are being revised to ensure the consistency and uniformity of the legal system, avoiding the situation where this Law is amended again, causing problems or causing difficulties for agencies in the process of organizing the implementation of other laws.

Besides, delegates were particularly concerned about the need for the State to have clear policies to protect traditional knowledge and indigenous knowledge in the current context.

Indigenous knowledge and traditional knowledge have been formed over thousands of years, through many generations, and are valuable assets of the community. As Vietnam is deeply integrating internationally with the policy of strongly developing the private economy, the State needs to have a clear protection policy for indigenous knowledge in the groups of regulations on state policies, in order to preserve and develop indigenous knowledge, ensuring the rights of communities that have owned that knowledge for many generations.

Delegate Ta Dinh Thi, National Assembly Delegation of Hanoi City

Delegate Bui Hoai Son said that the process of amending the Intellectual Property Law needs to ensure that legal requirements keep up with the explosive development of the cultural industry in the digital age and artificial intelligence (AI). The delegate emphasized the need to expand the scope of protection for non-physical products, protect national symbols on digital platforms, and especially clearly define legal responsibilities for digital platforms, social networks, and Generative AI tools to protect the rights of Vietnamese creators against cross-border "BigTechs".

Delegate Bui Hoai Son highly appreciated the fact that the draft law has expanded the definition of industrial design to cover non-physical forms, which is a step in the right direction, consistent with the reality of digital products, digital designs and virtual objects in the Metaverse.

However, it is necessary to explain more clearly about non-physical products, including: digital design, digital images; works created from AI with human creative participation; digital performance identities of artists. Protecting digital performance identities is very important to protect the image, voice and performance style of Vietnamese artists against the Deepfake and AI problem, an issue that is causing many consequences in the current period.

In order for intellectual property to truly become an economic resource, delegates recommended that it is necessary to unblock capital flows into this field through pricing and financial mechanisms, supplement regulations on intellectual property pricing and mechanisms for mortgaging and transferring intellectual property in credit transactions.

Citing that large platforms like YouTube often encounter problems with original and derivative content disputes, delegates suggested that the law must have a mechanism to protect authors' rights in the digital environment, where disputes occur quickly and across borders, clarifying the mechanism for authenticating the origin of works using advanced technologies such as Watermark, Blockchain or Content ID (content identification system). It is necessary to clarify the time limit for quickly handling online content disputes to avoid losing the market and business opportunities of authors.

In addition, the draft law needs to address the responsibilities of cross-border platforms and AI content, which is a core issue to protect creators in a rapidly changing technological landscape.

Accordingly, delegate Bui Hoai Son proposed adding a new provision, stating that digital platforms or Generative AI platforms must be responsible for removing infringing content upon request, preventing re-posting; and not commercializing AI content created from works without the author's permission. Adding these regulations will create a very important legal shield for Vietnamese artists against "BigTech" and ensure that Vietnam is not passive in the global digital value competition./.

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/la-chan-phap-ly-quan-trong-de-bao-ve-quyen-tac-gia-quyen-lien-quan-va-tai-san-tri-tue-trong-thoi-dai-so-20251105143611445.htm