Vietnam's regulations on protection of business secrets

1. What is a trade secret?

A business secret is information obtained from financial and intellectual investment activities that has not been disclosed and can be used in business.

(According to Clause 23, Article 4 Intellectual Property Law 2005 (revised and supplemented 2009))

2. Owner of trade secret

The owner of a business secret is an organization or individual that legally obtains a business secret and keeps that business secret confidential.

The business secrets that the hired party or the party performing the assigned tasks acquires when performing the hired or assigned work are owned by the hiring party or the assigning party, unless otherwise agreed by the parties.

(According to Clause 3, Article 121 Intellectual Property Law 2005 (revised and supplemented 2009))

3. Objects are not protected as business secrets

According to Article 85 Intellectual Property Law 2005 (revised and supplemented 2009) stipulates that the following confidential information cannot be protected as business secrets:

- Secrets about identity.

- Secrets about state management.

- Secrets about national defense and security.

- Other confidential information not related to business.

4. Conditions for protecting business secrets

According to Article 84 Intellectual Property Law 2005 (revised and supplemented 2009) regulations on general conditions for protected business secrets:

- It is not common knowledge and is not easily obtained.

- When used in business, it will give the holder of a trade secret an advantage over someone who does not hold or use that trade secret.

- Be kept confidential by the owner using necessary measures so that the business secret is not disclosed and is not easily accessible.

5. Use of trade secrets

The use of business secrets is carried out through acts specified in Clause 4, Article 124 Intellectual Property Law 2005 (revised and supplemented 2009) as follows:

- Applying business secrets to produce products, provide services, and trade goods.

- Selling, advertising for sale, storing for sale, importing products produced by applying trade secrets.

6. Right to prevent others from using business secrets

The owner of a business secret and the organization or individual granted the right to use the business secret have the right to prohibit others from using the business secret if such use does not fall into the following cases:

- Disclosing or using business secrets obtained without knowing and without obligation to know that business secrets were obtained illegally by others.

- Disclosure of confidential data to protect the public according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 128 Intellectual Property Law 2005 (revised and supplemented 2009).

- Use of confidential data specified in Article 128 Intellectual Property Law 2005 (revised and supplemented 2009) is not intended for commercial purposes.

- Disclosing and using independently created business secrets.

- Disclosing and using business secrets created by analyzing and evaluating legally distributed products, provided that the analyst or evaluator has no other agreement with the business secret owner or other person. sell.

(According to Clauses 1 and 3, Article 125 Intellectual Property Law 2005 (revised and supplemented 2009))