Key changes to patent-related deadlines under Vietnam’s 2025 IP Law

A very important development for Vietnam’s patent system. These shortened statutory deadlines reflect a clear policy direction toward accelerating patent examination and reducing the backlog of pending applications.

More timely examination can provide applicants with greater certainty over the protection of their inventions, while also allowing valuable technologies to move more quickly from the patent system toward commercialization and practical application. This is particularly important in technology-intensive sectors, where lengthy examination periods may delay investment, technology transfer, and market deployment.

From a broader perspective, the changes demonstrate Vietnam’s efforts to make its IP system more responsive to the country’s innovation-driven economic development strategy. A more efficient patent examination system can help strengthen incentives for R&D, facilitate the commercialization of technological results, and create a more predictable environment for both domestic innovators and international investors.

The key challenge will now be ensuring that these shortened timelines are accompanied by sufficient examination capacity and efficient administrative processes at IPVietnam, so that faster statutory deadlines translate into genuinely faster patent prosecution and reduced examination backlogs.

Key changes to patent-related deadlines under Vietnam’s 2025 IP Law:

• the deadlines for requesting substantive examination (Article 113) have been reduced from 42 to 36 months from priority date;
• the deadline of the first notice of substantive examination results (Article 119) has been reduced from 18 to 12 months from the publication date or request for examination date;
• the deadline for opposition of the third party (Article 112a) has been reduced from 09 to 06 months from publication date.

Consequently, IPVietnam's notice issuance deadline after response of the applicant has also been shortened from 06 to 04 months under Article 25 of Circular No. 10/2026/TT-BKHCN, while the applicant’s response period for a notice of substantive examination results of IPVietnam has generally been reduced from 3 months to 2 months.