Promoting the commercial exploitation of intellectual property rights — Moving from rights protection to property and commercialization

In this revision of the Intellectual Property Law, the emphasized viewpoint is to shift from only protecting rights to turning intellectual property rights into commercially exploitable assets, contributing to creating new momentum for innovation, improving the competitiveness of businesses and the country.

This shift was emphasized by Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung when the National Assembly Standing Committee commented on the Draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Intellectual Property at the recent 49th Session. According to Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh, this is a draft law that the National Assembly Standing Committee has added to the 2025 Legislative Program, submitted to the National Assembly according to a shortened order and procedure and is expected to be passed at the 10th Session.

In the Government's Report, the Draft focuses on five major policy groups. The first policy is to support the creation and commercial exploitation of intellectual property rights to promote innovation. The content of this policy includes amending and perfecting regulations clarifying the right to register and the right to commercially exploit intellectual property rights of organizations assigned to manage, use and own the results of scientific , technological and innovation tasks using the state budget.

In addition to the revised contents, the Draft also adds many new regulations such as regulations on handling intellectual property conflicts, and contents on State policies in supporting the creation and commercial exploitation of intellectual property objects, in order to promote innovation.

This amendment also adds provisions to clarify the State's policy in supporting the establishment, registration, recognition, publication, development, protection, exploitation, management and use of intellectual property objects.

The new policy also aims to support Vietnamese organizations and individuals in valuing, transferring, and assigning the right to use intellectual property objects, contributing capital with intellectual property rights; and at the same time, building a mechanism for sharing rights between the State, science and technology organizations and science and technology enterprises.

Strengthening intellectual property protection in the digital environment

One of the notable contents of the Draft is the addition of measures to strengthen the protection of rights in the digital environment. Specifically, it adds regulations on the responsibility of intermediary service providers for acts of infringement of intellectual property rights; on the application of temporary emergency measures to prevent the consequences of infringement and necessary civil measures. The Draft also encourages the application of conciliation measures in handling intellectual property disputes in the digital environment.

The draft stipulates priority for purchasing intellectual property rights for subjects of importance to national security and essential for socio -economic development; encourages the State to take the lead in ordering, purchasing, and using products and services created on the basis of applying inventions, layout designs, plant varieties, and computer programs developed in Vietnam.

The above contents are all aimed at creating a complete and clear legal basis, promoting the formation and commercial exploitation of intellectual property rights, thereby turning intellectual property rights into assets with real commercial value, contributing to promoting innovation, creating motivation for individuals and businesses to invest in research and development activities.

Legalizing intellectual property rights for AI-generated products

After preliminary examination, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly's Committee on Law and Justice basically agreed with the scope of amendments and supplements to the Draft Law. Chairman of the Committee Hoang Thanh Tung proposed to continue researching and supplementing regulations on new intellectual property subjects such as derivative works on digital platforms, intellectual property in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, building a legal framework to protect the rights of subjects in the online environment, meeting the requirements of science, technology and innovation development.

Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh raised the question: “Should AI-created products be recognized and protected?”, while Chairman of the Delegation Affairs Committee Nguyen Thanh Hai said that the Draft “does not clearly state the provisions on intellectual property rights for AI-created products”. Ms. Nguyen Thanh Hai suggested that the Law should have a framework to serve as a basis for sub-law documents to provide detailed regulations.

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung said that products created by AI without human participation are not protected and when AI creates content, it must be clearly noted that "content created by AI". "In the near future, when the AI ​​Law is issued, this issue will be regulated more clearly", the Minister said. As for products created by humans using AI as a creative support tool, they are still protected by intellectual property rights, this is also the approach of many countries today.

According to Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, the core idea of ​​this Law amendment is to turn research results into assets that can be traded and bought and sold, thereby forming a science and technology market. “Intellectual property must become the property of enterprises, which can be valued, bought and sold, recorded in financial reports, and used as collateral for loans and capital contributions, especially for new technologies. The most important shift is from protecting rights to assetizing, commercializing and marketizing research results, turning intellectual property into a strategic competitive tool for enterprises and the country,” Minister Nguyen Manh Hung emphasized.

The Minister also said that in developed countries, intangible assets account for 70-80% of total national assets, which are intellectual assets. Vietnam has reached a stage where it needs to prioritize the development of intellectual assets to become a new driving force for economic growth. Basically, the amendments to the Law revolve around this goal.

Concluding the discussion session, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh affirmed that the National Assembly Standing Committee basically agreed with the scope of amendments and supplements in the Draft as submitted by the Government; at the same time, he noted that the drafting agency should continue to perfect regulations related to new intellectual property subjects, especially in the fields of AI, Big Data and digital platforms, to meet the requirements of science and technology development and innovation.

Copyright protection of journalistic works – an urgent requirement

Referring to the issue of copyright in the field of journalism, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Society Nguyen Dac Vinh stated the reality: Currently, there is a situation where many electronic news sites aggregate news articles from original newspapers and earn higher revenue than the original content creator. There should be clear regulations in the Draft to protect copyright and the legitimate rights of press agencies.

Regarding this issue, Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung expressed his agreement that there are currently many news sites that are not press agencies but their revenue far exceeds that of the mainstream press due to copying and synthesizing news. The Minister affirmed that "Pure news is not protected, but journalistic works - the result of intellectual creativity - need to be protected."

Center for Science and Technology Communication

Source: https://mst.gov.vn/thuc-day-khai-thac-thuong-mai-quyen-so-huu-tri-tue-chuyen-tu-bao-ve-quyen-sang-tai-san-hoa-thuong-mai-hoa-197251011214600589.htm