Short answer: A squatter-style registration — filing swathes of other people’s brand names, never trading under them, simply waiting to sell them back — can be attacked for cancellation in Vietnam. The two main routes are invalidation for a dishonest applicant under Article 96, and termination for five years of non-use under Article 95; these cases are won or lost on the evidence of a ‘squatting pattern’, not on any single trademark.
Legal basis
Article 96 of the IP Law (supplemented by Law No. 07/2022/QH15) lets any organisation or individual request invalidation where the applicant had no right to file or acted dishonestly — the ground designed precisely for capturing another’s mark. Article 95 allows termination where a mark has not been used continuously for five years without legitimate reason. The invalidation request is filed with the Intellectual Property Office with evidence and the fee; its decision can be complained against and sued over administratively.
How this applies in practice
Persuasive pattern evidence includes: a portfolio of dozens or hundreds of filings by the same owner spanning famous marks in unrelated industries; offer-to-sell letters or price-demanding messages (gold-standard evidence — preserve it properly, consider notarised records); a prior relationship between the parties (agency, distribution, partnership talks, joint bids) showing the filer knew the mark beforehand; and the complete absence of any genuine business under the mark. Each piece alone is weak; assembled into a pattern it is very hard to deny.
On sequencing, many companies run two clocks: file the Article 96 invalidation as soon as the bad-faith evidence is ready (no need to wait five years), while calendaring Article 95 for when the five-year mark arrives if the first route fails. Meanwhile, do not let your own application be refused over the squatted registration — seek suspension of examination or keep a complaint alive to hold your filing until the invalidation is decided.
Action checklist
- Search the squatter’s full application and registration portfolio and extract the mass-filing pattern.
- Collect and preserve the sale offers, price demands and prior-relationship evidence (notarised records where needed).
- Draft the Article 96 invalidation request to the IP Office with the complete pattern evidence.
- Protect your own application: complain or seek suspended examination while the invalidation is pending.
- Calendar the five-year non-use date to deploy Article 95 as the fallback if invalidation fails.
Risks and practical notes
The common mistake is filing invalidation armed only with ‘this is my brand abroad’ and no evidence of dishonesty in Vietnam — a foreign mark unused in Vietnam does not win automatically. Another risk: negotiating a buyback in parallel can be recorded and edited by the other side into evidence of ‘an ordinary transaction’; route all contact through counsel and keep the written record clean.
Frequently asked questions
Can a blocking registration be cancelled?
Yes — request invalidation under Article 96 of the IP Law if the applicant’s dishonesty can be proven, or termination under Article 95 if the mark has not been used for five consecutive years.
How is squatting proven?
By a behaviour pattern: a mass portfolio of unrelated famous marks, offer-to-sell letters or price demands, a prior relationship showing they knew your mark first, and no genuine business activity at all.
How long does it take?
Invalidation at the IP Office commonly runs from many months to over a year depending on evidence complexity; with a complaint or administrative lawsuit, the total can be considerably longer.
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council