If we then turn from the more devel

If we then turn from the more developed ASEAN Six to the new members of the
ASEAN Four, the picture is more similar to that presented by some of the old ASEAN
members some fifteen years ago. Vietnam has the most advanced system of the
newcomers. It began to move away from socialist style inventor certificates in 1995,
when it took the unusual step of incorporating a framework legislation on intellectual
property rights into its new Civil Code. Part 6 of the Civil Code has chapters on
copyright, industrial property and on technology transfer. However, the legislation is
really a skeletal framework only. For details, one has to look further to a large number
of implementing decrees. The decrees are not always consistent, sometimes they
contradict each other and at other times they overlap leading to uncertainties in the
application of the law. Therefore, the government has prepared a comprehensive
legislation in the form of an intellectual property code. The Vietnamese National
Assembly passed the new Intellectual Property Law at the end of 2005 and it will
come into force in July 200633. Vietnam also acceded to the Berne Convention at the
end of 2004, thereby completing the international protection of intellectual property
rights in the country