According to Article 2 (viii) of the Stockholm
Convention on 14 July 1967 on the establishment of the World Intellectual
Property Organization, intellectual property is defined as the rights related
to: Literary works, art and science works, performance of performers, sound
recording, video recording, inventions in all areas of human endeavor,
Scientific Invention, Industrial Designs, Trademarks (goods), service marks, trade names and
indications , logos, Rights (protection) against unfair competition and all
other rights are the result of Intellectual activities in industry /
engineering, science, literature or arts.
The Berne Convention gives authors a
lifetime of copyright and a minimum of 50 years thereafter. However, countries
that comply with the convention are allowed to extend the term of copyright.
Depending on the laws of each country,
works may be regulated and may have different protections. Copyright
infringement of a work can be understood as an act of verbatim copying of part
or the whole of a pre-existing work but without the permission of the
copyrighted person or unauthorized transmission of part or the whole of a work
which is not under his copyright. More specifically, the text is not copied
verbatim, but the whole idea as well as the order of presentation of a work are
copied. This type of infringement is harder to spot but can still be considered
a form of copyright infringement if there is evidence that a
"copy" is imitating the prototype. It can be seen that the examples
in the master thesis do not specify the source and the main author. The text is
not copied in its original form but translated with creative ideas (in other
languages or in other formats) is also considered copyright infringement.
Under the 2005 Intellectual Property Law,
computer programs or computer software are protected by copyright as protection
of a literary work whether expressed in source code or machine code.
Therefore, copyright in computer software is also fully
protected with personal rights and related rights. The protection of laws on
intellectual property products is the basis to encourage individuals and
organizations to create useful products. But with the current situation
of infringement of intellectual property rights, especially
for computer programs and software, the copyright infringement is up to 80%.
Most of the computer software programs, if individuals want to use it, have to
pay royalties to manufacturers. Normally, this fee is calculated annually, but
many individuals and organizations use this reason to use pirated software
without copyright.
So how will violators be penalized?
Depending on the seriousness, violators may be administratively sanctioned or
examined for criminal prosecution. Specifically:
Firstly, regarding administrative
handling: Organizations and individuals will be fined from VND 15,000,000 to
VND 35,000,000 / 1 software product, if they commit acts of copying computer
programs without permission of the copyright owner. At the same time, these
organizations and individuals will be forced to remove infringing copies on the
digital and cyber environment or destroy the material evidence. According to
Article 18 of Decree No. 131/2013 / ND-CP (amended and supplemented by Decree
No. 28/2017 / ND-CP), specifically:
A fine of from VND 15,000,000 to VND
35,000,000 shall be imposed for copying a work without permission of the
copyright owner. At the same time, the application of remedial measures is to
force the removal of copies of infringing works in electronic form, on digital
and network environment or forcible destruction of infringing material
evidences.
Secondly, on criminal prosecution:
Article 225 of the Criminal Code 2015
(amended in 2017) provides for the Crime of infringement of copyright and
related rights as follows:
"Those who are not allowed by the
copyright or related right owner to intentionally commit one of the following
acts, infringe the copyright and related rights being protected in
Vietnam on a commercial scale or gain illicit profits of between VND 50,000,000
and under VND 300,000,000 or cause damage to copyright or related rights owner
from VND 100,000,000 to under VND 500,000,000 or infringing goods valued at
from VND 100,000 .000 VND to less than VND 500,000,000 will be imposed a fine
of from VND 50,000,000 to VND 300,000,000 or face non-custodial reform for up
to 03 years:
a) Copying works, sound records, video
records;
b) Distribute to the public a copy of the
work, a copy of the sound recording, a copy of the video recording. "
In cases of aggravating factors, a fine of
between VND 300,000,000 and VND 1,000,000,000 will be imposed or a prison term
of between 6 months and 3 years. If a commercial entity commits an offense, the
fine level will be higher for an individual, possibly liable to a fine of from
VND 500,000,000 to VND 5,000,000,000, suspended from operation for between 06 months
and 02 years or banned business, banned activities in certain fields or raising
capital from 01 year to 03 years. The applicable penalty will depend on the
seriousness of the violation.
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solutions. Hope that clears things up a bit. Feel free to message me directly
to chat further about any other IP questions that you face.
