On 22 September 2006, Vietnamese Government promulgated Decree no. 105/2006/NĐ-CP making detailed provisions and providing guidelines on the implementation of certain Articles of the Intellectual Property Law on intellectual property rights and State management of intellectual property. The Decree has officially taken effect since 21 October 2006.

The Decree comprises 8 Chapters, 63 Articles making detailed provisions on the protection of intellectual property rights including determination of acts, nature and seriousness of intellectual property right infringements, determination of damages, request for settlement of intellectual property right infringements and dealing with such requests, settlement of infringements by administrative measures, border control of intellectual property right related imports and exports, intellectual property assessment and provisions on State management of intellectual property.

According to thi Decree, depending on its nature and seriousness, an act of infringement may be dealt with by civil remedies, administrative or criminal measures, namely:

• Civil remedies shall be applied to deal with an act of infringement at the request of the intellectual property right holder or of the aggrieved organization or individual due to that act of infringement, even when such act has already been or is being deal t with by administrative or criminal measures. Procedures for request of civil remedies, the jurisdiction, formalities and procedures for application of civil remedies shall be in accordance with the legislation on civil procedures.

• Administrative measure shall be applied to deal with an act of infringement falling into one of the cases referred to in Article 211 of the Intellectual Property Law, at the request of an intellectual property right holder or of the aggrieved organization or individual due to the act of infringement or of the organization or the individual detecting the act of infringement or by the competent authority detecting the act of infringement. Sanctions, fines, authority and procedures for handling an act of infringement and applying remedial measures shall be in accordance with the Intellectual Property Law and the legislation on the settlement of violations of administrative regulations in the fields of copyright and related rights, industrial property rights and right to plant varieties.

• Criminal measures shall be applied to deal with an act of infringement that constitutes a crime as defined by the Penal Code.