Intellectual property is playing an important role in the socio-economic development of Vietnam, especially in the present context of global integration, says Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan.

Mr Quan made the affirmation at a national conference on the management of intellectual property in Ho Chi Minh City on November 9.

He also emphasized the significance of state management for protecting intellectual property. He asked participants in the conference to focus their discussions on the ways to evaluate the results, remove barriers, as well as devise directions for the development of intellectual property management in the future.

Le Manh Ha, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, said the management of intellectual property has gained significant achievements over the past years and stressed the need to continue protecting the property rights in the future.

In the first six months of 2011, the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam received nearly 35,000 applications for industrial property. More than 21,000 of them were approved.

The increase in the patent application from Vietnam and in overseas demonstrates that an awareness of the importance of protecting inventions has been raised and received confidence from both domestic and foreign businesses, said the office.

The National Office of Intellectual Property also warned localities to strengthen the management of intellectual property to ensure its effectiveness.

It is necessary to encourage inventions by building a mechanism to support high economic value solutions, it said.

(Source: VOV)