Vietnam has recognized the need to take action against sexual harassment, and has recently issued comprehensive regulations addressing the issue. Businesses would be well advised to update their human resources policies to stay compliant.

An exploration of what employers need to know about inventions created by employees in Thailand and Vietnam.

Due to the developing COVID-19 situation, the main Hanoi office of the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam will stop receiving documents filed directly at the office and the IP Help Desk from May 27 until further notice, according to Notification No. 4670/TB-SHTT dated May 25, 2021. During this suspension, documents filed with the Hanoi office must be filed online or via postal filing. Since online filing is currently available only for certain services such as new filing, maintenance, and appeals, direct filing still accounts for most filing at the head office. Thus, most documents should be filed via post at this time. As it is not clear if the filing date will be recorded as the date the document is received or the date it is sent (postmarked), IP applicants using postal filing are advised to file their documents early, well before any deadlines, for safety. Rights holders can still choose to file their documents in person via the IP Office’s representative offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, which are still operating fully.

On March 1, 2021, the government of Vietnam promulgated Decree No. 14/2021/ND-CP on Penalties for Administrative Violations Involving Animal Husbandry (Decree 14). The new decree took effect on April 20 and, among other contents, repeals the regulations on animal feed found in Decree No. 64/2018/ND-CP dated May 7, 2018. In the field of animal feed, notable penalties of Decree 14 include the following: Penalty forms and levels For each administrative violation, the violator will be imposed a monetary penalty, which is the main penalty form. For the same violation, the monetary penalty level applied to an organization is double the amount applied to an individual. In addition, based on the nature and extent of the violation, additional penalties may be imposed on the violators, including confiscation of violating items, and confiscating Certificates of Eligibility to manufacture animal feeds. Violations of regulations on declaring product information A fine of up to VND 3 million (USD 130) will be imposed for the act of changing information on product labels that has been published on the Portal of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) without conducting the notification procedure to inform the MARD of such change. A fine of up to VND 7 million (USD 300) will be imposed for the act of deliberately falsifying or erasing contents of documents or making false declarations in the applications for animal feed products on the Portal of the MARD. Violation of regulations on quality in importing animal feed A fine of up to VND 25 million (USD 1,080) will be imposed for the act of importing each animal feed having (i) a quantitative content of each quality criterion lower than the minimum level or higher than the maximum level compared with the standards announced or written on the goods label; or (ii) each safety criterion/each harmful microbiological criterion exceeding the allowable threshold under technical regulations or applied standards, depending on the specific criterion and percentage difference. Violation of regulations on purchasing, selling, and importing expired animal feed A fine of up to VND 40 million (USD 1,730) depending on the value of the violating goods will be imposed for the act of purchasing, selling, or importing animal feed products whose labels or enclosed documents state that the product has expired. A fine of up to VND 10 million (USD 430) will be imposed for the act of not presenting or incorrectly presenting the manufacturing date on the product label or documents accompanying the product. Violations of regulations on purchasing, selling, and importing animal feeds containing antibiotics A fine of up to VND 15 million (USD 650) will be imposed for each acts of purchasing, selling, or importing an animal feed product having antibiotic content different from the content presented on the product label or in the documents accompanying the product, depending on the difference. A fine of up to VND 15 million (USD 650) will be imposed for each act of (i) purchasing or importing an animal feed product containing antibiotics in which the information about the name and content of antibiotics, instruction for use, or time to ease using is not presented on the product labels or accompanying documents; or (ii) importing an animal feed product containing antibiotics without a prescription or not according to the prescription of a person having a practice certificate of prevention and treatment of animal diseases. A fine of up to VND 20 million (USD 860) will be imposed for the each act of (i) importing an animal feed product containing antibiotics that is not a complete mixed feed for livestock or poultry, or pure feed for grass-fed cattle; (ii) purchasing, selling, or importing an animal feed product containing antibiotics to prevent disease for pets that are not in the immature stage; and (iii) purchasing, selling, or importing an animal feed product containing antibiotics for the purpose of growth stimulation. A fine of up to VND 30 million (USD 1,300) will be imposed for the acts of purchasing, selling, or importing each animal feed product containing antibiotics that is not a veterinary drug approved for circulation in Vietnam or has not been approved by the relevant authority. Violations of regulations on using animal feed material A fine of up to VND 20 million (USD 860) will be imposed for each act of using an animal feed material which is not listed in the list of materials permitted to use in animal feed, depending on the value of the violating batch or the amount of illicit profits. Remedial measures In addition to the fines above, some remedial measures below are applied, depending on the case: Being forced to repeal the published animal feed product information, or correct the false information published on the Portal of the MARD; Being forced to recall, recycle, transform the use purpose, re-export or destroy the violating products; and Being forced to re-submit the illicit profits gained from the violations. Transitional provisions For administrative violations that occurred before the effective date of Decree 14 (April 20, 2021) but were detected later, or are being considered and resolved, regulations that are beneficial to the violators will be applied. For decisions on sanctioning of administrative violations that were issued or completely implemented before the effective date of Decree 14, but for which the violators can still appeal the decision, the previous legal document (Decree No. 64/2018/ND-CP) is applied. For violations detected after the effective date of Decree 14 that are effective in transitional provisions in the Law on Animal Husbandry and documents detailing the implementation of the Law on Animal Husbandry, Decree No. 64/2018/ND-CP is still applied until the transition period expires.