Can Foreigners Register Copyright in Vietnam

Who Counts as an Eligible Author or Copyright Owner

Under Article 12 of Decree 17/2023/ND-CP, eligible authors and copyright owners include both Vietnamese organizations/individuals and foreign organizations/individuals — the foreign-eligibility test turns on the work's publication, not the author's nationality or residence.

Eligibility

A foreign author or copyright owner is eligible if either of these publication conditions is met.

• The work is published for the first time in Vietnam and not yet published in any other country, or
• The work is published in Vietnam within thirty days of its first publication in another country.
• The underlying work must also meet the general conditions: it must be creative, and expressed in a certain material form — regardless of content, quality, form, means, or language, and regardless of whether it has otherwise been published, unpublished, registered, or unregistered.

Documents

Applications must be in Vietnamese.

• If source documents are in a foreign language, they must be translated into Vietnamese and notarized or authenticated before submission.

Processing Time

The Copyright Office reviews and decides on a valid dossier within a fixed statutory window.

• Within 1 month of receiving a valid dossier, the Copyright Office issues the Certificate of Copyright Registration, or notifies the applicant in writing of a refusal.
• If the dossier is invalid, the applicant generally has up to 1 month from the notice to amend and supplement it, except in cases of force majeure or other objective obstacles.

Go Deeper

• How to Register a Trademark in Vietnam: Cost and Process