Overview   

Copyright means rights of organizations and individuals to works they have created or own.

Copyright-related rights (below referred to as related rights) means rights of organizations and individuals to performances, phonograms, video recordings, broadcasts and encrypted program-carrying satellite signals. 

Authors, owners of copyright having copyrighted works 

1. Organization and individual having protected copyrights include persons who have directly created the work and copyrights owners stipulated from Article 37 to Article 42 of this Law.
2. Authors and owners of copyrights stipulated in paragraph 1 of this Article include Vietnamese organizations, individuals; foreign organizations, individuals of which works firstly published in Vietnam and has not been published in any foreign country or simultaneously published in Vietnam in a duration of 30 days from its first publication in other nations; Foreign organizations, individuals of which works eligible for protection in Vietnam in accordance with international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is party. 

Forms of protected works 

1. Literary, artistic and scientific works protected including:
a) Literary and scientific works, textbooks, teaching materials, and other works expressed in forms of letters or other writing characters;
b) Lectures, presentations and other speeches;
c) Journalistic works;
d) Musical works;
d’) Dramatic works;
e) Cinematographic works and works created by similar methods (hereinafter referred to as cinematographic works);
…
2. Derivative works shall only be protected according to paragraph 1 of this Article if they do not infringe the copyrights in respect of the works used to make derivative works. 
3. Protected works stipulated in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article must be created directly by author’s intelligence without reproducing others’ works. 

Subject matter excluded from copyrights protection 

1. Information just for the purposes of communication;
2. Legal normative documents, administrative documents, other documents in the judicial sector and the official translation thereof.
3. Processes, systems, method of operation, definitions, principles and statistics. 

Protected organizations, individuals of related rights 

1. Actors, singers, musicians, dancers and others who perform literary and artistic works (hereinafter referred to as performers);
2. Organizations, individuals that are owners of the performances stipulated in Article 44.1 of this Law.
3. Organizations, individuals that make fixation of sounds, images of a performance for the first time or other sounds and images (hereinafter referred to as producers of phonograms). 
4. Organizations that take the initiative of and carry out the broadcast (hereinafter referred to as broadcasting organizations). 

Copyrights

Copyrights to works stipulated in this Law include personal rights and property rights. 

Personal rights 

Personal rights include the following rights: 
1. To name his or her work;
2. To put his or her real name or pseudonym in the work; to have his or her real name or pseudonym mentioned when his or her work is published or used;
3. To publish his or her work or authorize another person to do so;
4. To protect the integrity of his or her work, to object to any alteration, mutilation, distortion or other modification in any form which prejudice against his or her honor and prestige. 

Property rights 

1. Property rights include the following: 
a) To create the derivative work;
b) To perform the work to the public;
c) To reproduce the work; 
d) To circulate to the public the original or copies of the work;
e) To communicate the work to the public by wire or wireless means, through electronic information network or by any other technical means;
e) To lease the original or copies of a cinematographic work or a computer program.
2. The rights referred to in clause 1 of this Article shall be exercised by the author [or] the owner of exclusive copyright or by another person with the owner’s permission in accordance with this Law.
3. Organizations, individuals who exploit or use one, several or all of the rights stipulated in paragraph 1 of this Article and paragraph 3 of Article 19 of this Law must ask for permission from the copyright owners and pay them with royalties, remuneration and other material benefits. 

Required documents for copyright application 

1. 01 applications of Copyright registration (as form)
2. 02 copies of the work (original work or as photos taken from different angles with description)
3. Copy of documents attesting to legal existence and business activities (business license etc) certified by relevant authorities. 
4. 01 commitment letter from the author or organization.