At the end of April 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) published the latest draft of the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Insurance Business, and the Law on Intellectual Property (“Draft”) with the objective of complying with the CPTPP which has been ratified by the Vietnam National Assembly through Resolution no. 72/2018/QH14 dated November 15, 2018 (“Resolution 72”). The CPTPP takes effect since January 14, 2019 in Vietnam. Vietnam is the 7^th country ratified the CPTPP.

Appendix 3 of Resolution 72 showed the amendments to existing laws under the schedule of CPTPP commitments. Accordingly, there are eight laws where amendments are needed, and up to now most of them have been successfully amended and supplemented or on schedule except for the Law on Insurance Business the Law on Intellectual Property and Law on Food Safety. Because of the serious demand for changing the law, the option of using ‘one law to change existing laws’ along with the shorter procedure for approval was chosen to meet the short timeline to submit at once to the National Assembly for approval in June 2019.

The Law on Insurance Business no. 24/2000/QH10 was issued in 2000 and it took effect since April 01, 2001. It was amended and supplemented one time in 2010 and has been followed by 47 decrees and circulars. However, this hierarchy of regulation is insufficient to manage the insurance auxiliary services as well as comply with the international agreements. Besides, the Law on Intellectual Property No. 50/2005/QH11 was issued in 2005 and took effect on June 01, 2006. It was amended only once in 2009. It is in need to of significant change in order to meet the CPTPP schedule. Resolution 72 clearly indicated eight aspects of the Law on Intellectual Property to amend and supplement in which some content shall take effect immediately after the CPTPP is effective while the other content could be applied within 2 to 5 years of the effective date.

With the amendment and supplementation, the inadequacy of the Law on Insurance Business and the Law on Intellectual Property is expected to be partly solved. This time, a legal framework for insurance auxiliary services shall be created and it is not only to comply with the CPTPP but also to meet the demand of the market and bring additional benefits to insurance companies, insurance brokers as well as consumers. These changes shall also attract more investors to the field. For the Law on Intellectual Property, new contents of the Law on Intellectual Property shall bring additional advantages for registering trademarks and patents; simultaneously, Vietnam has to increase the IP protection to comply with international commitments.

According to the Draft, there are 12 aspects of the current Law on Insurance Business and 11 aspects of the current Law on Intellectual Property which will be amended and supplemented. The main points of the Draft could be grouped as follows:

1. Regarding the Law on Insurance Business

• Supplementing the definition for 6 terms including insurance auxiliary services, insurance consultancy, insurance risk assessment, actuarial, insurance loss assessment, and support insurance settlement. Those are new terms relating to the supplementation of insurance auxiliary services.
• Supplementing regulations on the right of organizations and individuals providing insurance auxiliary services to participate in professional social associations. It is to comply with the similar right of insurance enterprises, insurance agents and insurance brokerage enterprises.
• Supplementing provisions on insurance auxiliary services:

• Both individuals and enterprises are able to provide insurance auxiliary services (Article 93a) but with a different scope of work. Specific conditions for providing insurance auxiliary services are also listed in Article 93b. Those regulations focus on the fundamental authority to manage this service in reality (post-mortem review). No sub-license (pre-control) is required.
• Recognize the provision of insurance support services cross border (Article 105.2).

• Amending and supplementing the management of authorities to make clear the responsibility of authorities and the violation relating to the insurance auxiliary services.

2. Regarding the Law on Intellectual Property

• Patent:
• Provide a more convenient process for applications to be submitted to Vietnamese authorities (no limitation on revealed location; allow the 12-month grace period instead of current 6-month grace period)
• Geographical indication:

• Supplement the requirement on assessment, accordingly, the assessment has to be based on the understanding of Vietnamese consumers;
• Amend Article 80.3 on assessment of possibility to cause mistake between geographical indication and trademark;
• Supplement Article 120a on recognition and protection of geographical indication according to international agreements.

• Trademark:

• Supplement the electronic method to submit trademark application (Article 89, comply with Article 18.24 of CPTPP). Currently, electronic method has been applied but it hasn’t been put into laws;
• Repeal the requirement to registering the transfer of the right to use trademark;
• The use of a trademark by a transferee according to licensing agreement may also be considered a trademark use by the trademark owner.
• increase the protection scheme of Intellectual Property rights to conform to Article 18.74 (4, 10, 15) and 18.76 (4, 8) of CPTPP.

In order to facilitate organizations and individuals operating in insurance auxiliary services to prepare to meet the conditions of providing insurance auxiliary services and ensuring the enforcement of sanctions, Article 3 of the Draft stipulates a one-year-transitional provision from the effective date.

The Draft is scheduled for approval by the National Assembly on June 14, 2019 and if it is approved, it is planned to take effect on November 1, 2019. There are 3 aspects assigned to Government to stipulate the details:

1) The qualification of individuals implementing the insurance auxiliary services in enterprises;

2) The provision of insurance support services across borders and

3) The Government stipulates a new sub-section under the insurance support services apart from 5 sub-sections (insurance consultancy, insurance risk assessment, actuarial, insurance loss assessment, support insurance settlement);

however, it also needs the acceptance of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

In addition, with the recognition of insurance auxiliary services in Law on Insurance Business, Investment Law No. 03/2016/QH14 has also been changed by supplementing the insurance auxiliary services into the list of conditional business lines in Appendix 4 of the Investment Law.

Although this Draft is planned to take effect from November 1, 2019, the new contents of the Law on Intellectual Property shall be applied to:

• Applications for industrial property registration filed from January 14, 2019;
• Procedures for cancellation of the validity of patents, utility solutions and certificates of geographical indications which are granted based on the applications for industrial property registration filed from January 14, 2019;
• Procedures for invalidation of trademark registration certificates carried out from January 14, 2019;
• Procedures for protection of intellectual property rights which are required from January 14, 2019.

It can be seen that this changing time is mainly to conform to the CPTPP. The Law on Insurance Business is foreseen to have a comprehensive change in 2020. The Law on Intellectual Property is also estimated to change one more time to comply with other contents of CPTPP which have a schedule to apply later.

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