On 22 May 2020, the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (IP Vietnam) issued Notice No. 7108/TB-SHTT regarding its receipt of request for accelerating examination of patent applications under the PPH program (PPH request) between the IP Vietnam and Japan Patent Office (JPO) in 2020. According to this Notice, as at the end of 4 May 2020, the IP Vietnam had sufficiently received 100 PPH requests for the period from 1 April 2020 thru 30 September 2020.

However, in the process of handling the above PPH requests, the IP Vietnam has recognized that out of the 100 requests received from 1 April 2020 thru 30 September 2020, four (4) PPH requests filed by the industrial property agents have the same filing numbers leading to the fact that the actual number of PPH requests received during this period is 96.

To ensure the number of PPH requests agreed between the IP Vietnam and JPO, the IP Vietnam will carry the remaining four (4) PPH requests (for the period from 1 April 2020 to 30 September 2020) forward to the number of PPH requests for the period from 1 October 2020 to 31 March 2021. Thus, the total number of PPH requests received by the IP Vietnam in the period from 1 October 2020 to 31 March 2021 will be 104 requests.