WIPO Director General Daren Tang: Vietnam is asserting its strength from intellectual property

On the afternoon of September 25 in Hanoi, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Daren Tang worked with the National Office of Intellectual Property. He highly appreciated Vietnam's strong progress in exploiting intangible assets and likened intellectual property to a "weapon" for businesses to protect and make breakthroughs. At the same time, he affirmed that WIPO will continue to accompany and support Vietnam in building a modern intellectual property system - a key driving force for sustainable growth and international integration.

Building a modern, professional, technologically strong IP system

Welcoming the delegation, Director General of the National Office of Intellectual Property Luu Hoang Long emphasized that the visit demonstrated WIPO's deep interest in the development of Vietnam's intellectual property system. Director General Luu Hoang Long said that in the context of the country promoting science, technology, innovation and digital transformation, intellectual property is one of the important pillars towards the goal of sustainable economic growth.

Director of the National Office of Intellectual Property Luu Hoang Long speaks at the meeting.

Since the 2022 Memorandum of Understanding, WIPO has supported Vietnam in many key areas: Building a national IP Strategy, digitizing data, improving capacity for businesses, research institutes, and universities; effectively operating international registration systems (PCT, Madrid, The Hague) and the IPAS management system. WIPO also makes important contributions to training and publishing in-depth documents for policy making.

Mr. Luu Hoang Long said that the National Office of Intellectual Property is focusing on handling the backlog of registration applications, striving to complete it before the end of October. At the same time, the Office is synchronously implementing long-term strategies, such as: Perfecting institutions, promoting digital transformation, improving professional quality, effectively exploiting intellectual property, developing human resources, strengthening propaganda and inspection of rights enforcement. The long-term goal is to build the National Office of Intellectual Property into a modern, professional, technologically strong agency in the region.

From this reality, the Director proposed that WIPO continue to support upgrading the IPAS system, send technical experts to new areas such as commercialization, financialization of intellectual property, improving capacity for rights enforcement; support training for local officials and leaders; expand internship and work opportunities at WIPO; and especially promote the rate of Vietnamese inventions.

Competitive "weapons" from intellectual property

Speaking at the meeting, WIPO Director General Daren Tang highly appreciated Vietnam’s achievements in the field of IP, considering this a worthy result for persistent efforts. He commented that many countries now wish to learn from the experience of Vietnam – a country with a breakthrough strategic vision.

Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization Daren Tang speaks at the meeting.

Mr. Daren Tang emphasized that the role of IP today is not only limited to protection, but also needs to be linked to commercialization to create momentum for economic growth. "The National Office of IP needs to undertake a dual task: both protecting and providing businesses with the necessary weapons to compete and develop. For businesses, that 'weapon' is the commercialization of intellectual property."

The WIPO Director General affirmed his readiness to support Vietnam in the process of restructuring the IP agency, reorganizing the apparatus, training human resources and improving management capacity. He particularly emphasized the importance of building a high-quality registration service, focusing on customer care, considering this as the core driving force for the system to operate effectively. In addition, WIPO wishes to cooperate in promoting the valuation and commercialization of intellectual property, encouraging Vietnamese enterprises to register rights abroad, and gradually improving the capacity to export intellectual property rights.

Overview of the working session

According to the WIPO Director General, Vietnam is shifting from relying on tangible resources to promoting the power of intangible assets, in which IP plays a key role. Therefore, WIPO will continue to accompany in training appraisers, consulting on restructuring and promoting public-private cooperation to improve commercialization capacity. The WIPO Director General also suggested that Vietnam select successful businesses and entrepreneurs thanks to good exploitation of intellectual property as "image ambassadors", in order to spread the spirit of innovation in the community and society./.

Center for Science and Technology Communication

Source: https://mst.gov.vn/tong-giam-doc-wipo-daren-tang-viet-nam-dang-khang-dinh-suc-manh-tu-tai-san-tri-tue-197250926104644113.htm