Vietnam – New Law Amending And Supplementing The Law On Insurance Business And The Law On Intellectual Property.

On 14 June 2019, the National Assembly of Vietnam passed a new Law (New Law) amending and supplementing the following laws:

 

(i)  Law No. 24/2000/QH10, entitled the Law on Insurance Business, passed by the National Assembly on 9 December 2000, as amended by Law No. 61/2010/QH12 passed by the National Assembly on 24 November 2010 (collectively, Law on Insurance Business); and

 

(ii)  Law No. 50/2005/QH11, entitled the Law on Intellectual Property, passed by the National Assembly on 29 November 2005, as amended by Law No. 36/2009/QH12 passed by the National Assembly on 19 June 2009 (collectively, Law on Intellectual Property);

 

in order for Vietnam to comply with the provisions of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTTP), which has been recently ratified by the National Assembly, and with the commitments of Vietnam upon its accession to the World Trade Organisation.

 

The New Law will take effect as from 1 November 2019.

 

Below are some highlights of the key amendments under the New Law as compared to the current Law on Insurance Business and Law on Intellectual Property.

 

(i) Amendments regarding the Law on Insurance Business and Annex 4 of the Law on Investment

 

•   The New Law defines and creates a legal framework for insurance auxiliary services, being consultancy, risk assessment, actuarial, loss inspection, and claim settlement. In the current Law on Insurance Business, there are no definitions and no clear legal framework applicable to these types of services.

•   Under the New Law, an organisation shall be entitled to provide insurance auxiliary 

  services if:

  1. it is a legal entity which is duly and properly established;

  2. its individuals directly providing insurance auxiliary services to clients comply with the following requirements:

     1. be 18 or more years of age and having full capacity for civil acts;

     2. having a valid and appropriate degree or certificate of insurance auxiliary, issued by a duly and properly established foreign or local training facility;

     3. meet the standards applicable to inspectors in accordance with commercial laws (applying only for individuals directly practicing loss inspection activities); and

     4. meet the standards of law compliance, ethics, professional qualifications, experience in actuarial practice, membership of the International Actuarial Association (applying only for individuals directly practicing actuarial activities).

  3.   The New Law provides that the provision of insurance auxiliary services shall be subject to further guidance from the Government in the future.

  4.   The amendment of the Law on Insurance Business has the consequence that the Annex 4 of the Law on Investment (which contains the list of conditional businesses) is amended accordingly to include the new business activity of insurance auxiliary services.

   

  (ii) Amendments regarding the Law on Intellectual property

   

  •   The New Law provides a more favourable time limit for the novelty preservation of a patent, which is filed in Vietnam, after such patent is publicly announced. In particular, pursuant to the New Law, a patent will remain novel if such patent application is submitted within 12 months as from the date of the patent being published. The current time limit for such novelty preservation is only 6 months according to the Law on Intellectual Property.

  •   The New Law also states that trademark license agreements are not required to be registered with the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) for effectiveness with respect to third parties, whereas, under the current Law on Intellectual Property, generally all types of industrial property (including trademark) license agreements are required to be registered with the NOIP in order to be effective against a third party.