Trademark Patent & Services is a local agent to protect your marks, your entity, your rights and your business in Lao PDR
LAO PDR International Conventions Membership
- Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), January 17, 1995
- Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, Stockholm Act, October 8, 1998
- ASEAN CFS, 2000
- US-Lao Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), February 2005. It includes establishment of a regime to protect intellectual property rights. (Normal Trade Relations (NTR), December 2004)
- Thai – Lao Agreement on Patent
- ASEAN Framework Agreement on Intellectual Property Cooperation
- ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement, May 17, 2010
- Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), June 14, 2006
- Bern Convention for the International Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and also become a member of “Berne Union”, March 14, 2012
- WTO, February 2, 2013.
- Madrid Protocol, March 7, 2016
Legal Basis and IP related Laws
- Law on Intellectual Property
- Law on National Heritage
- Law on Enterprise
- Penal Law(
- Customs Law
- Tax Law
- Investment Promotion Law
- Law on Civil Procedure
- The Penal Procedure Law
- Law on Telecommunication
- Law on Agriculture
- Property Law
The language used for applications: An application and any accompanying material may be filed in Lao language or in the English language (Lao translation within ninety (90) days.
Priority: For patents and petty patents, the priority period is twelve (12) months from the priority date.
For industrial designs and trademarks, the priority period is six (6) months from the priority date.
Temporary Protection: Temporary protection shall be available for inventions, utility innovations, industrial designs, and trademarks in respect of goods exhibited at official or officially recognized international exhibitions, provided a request for such protection is made within six (6) months from the date on which the goods were first exhibited or rendered at such exhibition.
Formality Examination: The Ministry of Science and Technology will conduct a formality examination of each industrial property application for compliance, correctness, and payment of fees; and then issuance of a filing number and date.
Publication: After formality examination, the application for a patent or petty patent will be published in the official industrial property gazette the 19th month after the date of filing the application or the priority date.
Substantive Examination: the patent, petty patent, industrial design, trademark and geographical indication applications are subject to substantive examination prior registration.
The layout-design of integrated circuit registration application is not examined as to substance.
A Request for substantive examination is within 32 months for an invention and twelve (12) months for a utility innovation from the date of filing the application or the priority date.
No substantive examination request is needed for industrial design, trademark and geographical indication.
Amendment and division: At any time a pending application may be amended or divided. An amendment shall not (i) introduce new technical information not supported by the original application into an application for a patent, petty patent, or registration of an integrated circuit layout-design; (ii) change the essential appearance of an industrial design or the essential nature of a mark or geographical indication.
Abandonment: Industrial property applications shall be deemed abandoned under the following conditions:
- the application is incomplete;
- the industrial property does not meet the requirements for protection;
- the applicant is not entitled to apply for registration;
- the applicant fails to pay the required fees for the application or to maintain the protection in force;
- the applicant did not request substantive examination of the invention or utility registration application within the period provided in the Law and the applicant does not correct the above deficiencies within the time set by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Registrations: After examination the Ministry of Science and Technology will issue a patent, petty patent or industrial property registration certificate, enter the registration in the registry and publish the registration in the official industrial property gazette.
Cancellation: Where an industrial design, trademark or geographical indication has been registered, the third party may request an objection or a cancellation of such registration within period of 5 years from the date of publication in the official gazette
The industrial property owner has the following rights:
1. Enjoy the benefits derived from the exploitation of the industrial property;
2. Transfer all or part of the owner’s rights to another person by sale, exchange, rent or assignment;
3. Permit another person to exploit all or part of the owner’s rights to the industrial property;
4. Inherit industrial property and to pass ownership of the industrial property by inheritance;
5. Take legal action to protect its industrial property from violation by other parties.