Partner Vinh Quoc Nguyen, an expert on Vietnamese real estate laws, provided the chapter on Vietnam for Practical Law’s Corporate Real Estate Global Guide 2019, a high-level comparative overview of commercial real estate laws and regulations in 32 jurisdictions worldwide. The chapter also highlights recent trends in the condominium, office, and retail sectors of the Vietnam real estate market.

Intellectual property (IP), such as trademarks, copyrighted works, designs, inventions and trade secrets, is a valuable asset for many companies. It brings with it market advantages and distinguishes one company’s business from another’s. Hence, it is important for company management to recognize and manage their IP portfolios properly.

Despite rapid economic development over the past two decades and an increasingly urban population, Vietnam remains a primarily agricultural country. According to 2018 statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, 70% of the population (67.5 million) was living by agriculture, with agricultural land (including forests) covering 26 million hectares—an area about the size of the country of New Zealand.

The Intellectual Property Office of Viet Nam (IP Viet Nam) and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) have launched a new Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program. The program will be in effect for two years, commencing on June 1, 2019, and ending on May 31, 2021. The number of requests accepted per year is limited to 100 from each office.

Myanmar’s Copyright Law was finally enacted into law on May 24, 2019, effectively repealing the old Copyright Act of 1914. The law lays out the new legislative framework for the protection of literary and artistic works and other related rights, to be implemented through administrative bodies and subsidiary regulations that will be issued in due course.Overview

In recent years, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending technology has taken root in Asia, particularly in China, Singapore, and Indonesia, and the P2P market is continuing to expand significantly. The business model allows lenders and borrowers to link up via an online platform. This disrupts the traditional banking model that requires a financial institution to act as an intermediary. For individuals, this means that underbanked populations are able to secure loans where previously a lack of credit history or little access to financial service institutions posed considerable obstacles.

By and large, government regulations are adopted to achieve certain economic, social, and cultural objectives. However, excessive regulation can impose high burdens on society that outweigh these benefits. The current government of Thailand has undertaken regulatory reforms to address the problems posed by poorly designed regulations.