Regulations on self-protection of copyright and related rights from April 26, 2023

On April 26, 2023, the Government issued Decree 17/2023/ND-CP guiding the Law on Intellectual Property on copyright and related rights, effective from April 26, 2023.

Accordingly, Section 1, Chapter VI of Decree 17/2023/ND-CP stipulates self-protection of copyright and related rights, effective from April 26, 2023 as follows:

1. General provisions on copyright and related rights protection

Article 56 of Decree 17/2023/ND-CP provides general provisions on the protection of copyright and related rights as follows:

- The copyright owner or related rights owner may directly or may authorize a collective copyright or related rights representative organization or other organization or individual in accordance with the provisions of law to exercise and protect their copyright or related rights. The authorized party is responsible for publicly informing organizations and individuals exploiting and using the work, performance, audio recording, video recording, or broadcast program to contact and negotiate on exploitation and use.

- Organizations and individuals exploiting and using works, performances, audio recordings, video recordings, and broadcast programs are obliged to contact the copyright owner, related rights owner, or authorized party to reach an agreement on exploitation and use in accordance with the provisions of law on copyright and related rights.

- Disputes over copyright and related rights shall be resolved in accordance with the provisions of the law on civil procedure or arbitration.

2. Apply civil, administrative and criminal measures to protect copyright and related rights.

Pursuant to Article 57 of Decree 17/2023/ND-CP stipulating the application of civil, administrative and criminal measures to protect copyright and related rights as follows:

Organizations and individuals who infringe upon the copyright or related rights of other organizations and individuals may, depending on the nature and extent of the infringement, be subject to civil, administrative or criminal measures as prescribed in Part Five (Protection of intellectual property rights) of the 2005 Law on Intellectual Property (amended in 2009, 2019, 2022) and according to the following provisions:

2.1. Civil remedies

Civil measures are applied to handle infringements at the request of copyright owners or related rights owners or of organizations or individuals suffering damage caused by infringements, even when such infringements have been or are being handled by administrative or criminal measures.

Procedures for requesting the application of civil measures, authority, order and procedures for applying civil measures shall comply with the provisions of law on civil procedure or arbitration.

2.2. Administrative measures

Administrative measures are applied to handle infringements falling into one of the cases specified in Article 211 of the 2005 Law on Intellectual Property (amended by Clause 27, Article 1 of Law No. 36/2009/QH12), at the request of the copyright owner, related rights owner, organization or individual suffering damage caused by the infringement, the organization or individual discovering the infringement or proactively detected by a competent authority.

The form, level of penalty, authority, procedure for handling infringements and remedial measures shall comply with the provisions of the Law on Intellectual Property 2005 (amended in 2009, 2019, 2022) and the law on handling administrative violations in the field of copyright and related rights.

2.3. Criminal measures

Criminal measures are applied to handle acts of infringement in cases where such acts have sufficient elements to constitute a crime according to the provisions of the 2015 Penal Code.

The authority, order and procedure for applying criminal measures shall comply with the provisions of the law on criminal procedure.