Vietnam’s 2015 Civil Code and the International Tendency for Conflict of Laws in Intellectual Property

This paper summarizes and assesses the international trend, both in doctrine and in legal provisions dealing with conflict of laws in intellectual property field and reviews the relevant provisions in the Part 5th on applicable law to civil relations evolving foreign elements of the Vietnam’s 2015 Civil Code. The author shows that the two new provisions of the Vietnam’s 2015 Civil Code, namely Article 679 and Article 683, has partly caught up with the international trend in recognizing conflicts of laws and providing choice-of-law rules for resolving these conflicts in the intellectual property relations. The shortcoming of the Vietnam’s 2015 Civil Code is the absence of a particular provision dealing with the conflict of laws in case of infringement of intellectual property rights. On that basis, the paper offers comments and suggestions on the need to make the provisions of the Vietnam’s Civil Code more specific in the future.