Dr. Vinh Quoc Nguyen, a partner with the corporate and commercial team in Tilleke & Gibbins’ Ho Chi Minh City office, has been elected to serve a one-year term as chair of the Vietnam Business Lawyers Club (VBLC), a leading professional organization affiliated with the Vietnam Bar Federation. VBLC was established in 2015 with the mission of developing a collaborative group of Vietnamese lawyers engaged in cross-border commercial practice. In addition to providing a forum for practitioners to share experience and offer mutual support, VBLC regularly conducts classes and seminars, and advises lawmakers on policy issues. A well-known figure in Vietnam legal circles, Dr. Vinh is also a lecturer at the Judicial Academy and an arbitrator with the Vietnam International Arbitration Centre (VIAC). In November 2021, he was honored by Vietnam’s Ministry of Justice for his contributions to the development of the country’s legal practice.

Partner Loc Xuan Le shared his thoughts on Vietnam’s accession to the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT), a special agreement under the Berne Convention, with a reporter from Asia IP magazine in a recent article: “In my opinion, Vietnam’s Law on Intellectual Property has already covered and satisfied WCT’s requirements, so the accession to WCT is just us acting on our commitment when we joined the EU – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. By joining WCT, Vietnam ensures that we shall provide IP rights protection at international standards, which I believe is crucial in developing Vietnam as an attractive business destination for foreign investors.” Loc further added, “On the other hand, Vietnam has a strong and growing community of artists who generate content on the Internet daily, so the official accession of Vietnam to WCT shall provide solid legal grounds to protect Vietnamese creators in the digital era. This, in return, shall act as an incentive to promote the creative sector.” Asia IP, published by the Apex Asia Media Group, is a leading source for analysis of the IP issues facing companies in Asia, and a source of market intelligence for IP owners in the region. The full article can be read at the Asia IP website.

Asia Business Law Journal (ABLJ) has published a story on Tilleke & Gibbins’ recent addition of Derrick Khoo to the Tilleke & Gibbins regional corporate and M&A team. As the article notes, Derrick came to Tilleke & Gibbins after several years as a general counsel handling a wide variety of international corporate legal matters. He is particularly experienced in cross-border transactions and M&A deals, growth equity investments, pre-IPO investments, corporate real estate, and other corporate and commercial legal matters. In the article, his arrival at Tilleke & Gibbins is welcomed by Kobkit Thienpreecha, partner and director of the firm’s corporate and commercial group, who explains that Derrick is joining the firm at the same time that Thailand has been taking steps to support regional financial integration and cross-border investment opportunities. With the addition of Derrick’s expertise in these areas, Tilleke & Gibbins is broadening its capability to facilitate a greater variety and volume of these activities, in keeping with an anticipated uptick in associated transactions. For more details on this development, please see the ABLJ website.

On December 2, Michelle Ray-Jones and Ploynapa Julagasigorn hosted a Licensing Executives Society (LES) Thailand webinar titled “IP Valuation and IP Implications of Thailand’s New Trade Competition Act.” In the first part of the webinar, Michelle introduced the webinar and emphasized the importance of IP valuation as the digital economy flourishes. Ploynapa then joined two other speakers to provide insights on the latest trends in IP valuation, highlight trademark valuation matters, and share their knowledge and experience with IP valuation, from both financial and legal perspectives. The webinar gave LES members a better understanding of the actual value of their IP assets and their brands, and facilitated greater connections among Thailand’s IP commercialization community.