Copyright, software and AI: automatic protection, voluntary registration, ownership of works by employees and contractors, moral rights, software licensing, related rights, collective management, the 2026 AI training exception and the Law on Artificial Intelligence

Automatic protection and what it covers

Copyright in Vietnam arises when a work is created and fixed in some material form, regardless of content, quality, form, language or whether it has been published or registered (Article 6 of Law No. 50/2005/QH11 on Intellectual Property, as amended most recently by Law No. 131/2025/QH15) (FAQ 84). Protected works include literary and scientific works, lectures, journalism, music, drama, cinematographic works, fine and applied art, photographs, architectural works, maps and drawings, and computer programs and compilations of data (Article 14). Protection extends to the expression of a work, not to ideas, procedures, methods or concepts, and Law No. 131/2025/QH15 now states expressly that ideas, slogans and the names of works standing alone are not protected. News reports of pure fact, legal and administrative texts and their official translations are excluded (Article 15).

The economic rights last for the life of the author and 50 years after death; cinematographic, photographic and applied art works and anonymous works are protected for 75 years from first publication (Article 27). A foreign work is protected in Vietnam through the Berne Convention, the WTO TRIPS Agreement and Vietnam's free trade agreements, including the CPTPP and EVFTA, so a foreign company's software, content and designs are protected without any Vietnamese formality.

Registration with the Copyright Office

Registration is voluntary. An author or owner may register a work, and a performance, phonogram or broadcast, with the Copyright Office of Vietnam (Cục Bản quyền tác giả) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which issues a certificate within 15 working days of a valid application (Articles 49 to 52), under the procedure in Decree No. 17/2023/ND-CP. A certificate does not create the right, but whoever holds it does not have to prove ownership unless there is contrary evidence; the burden shifts to the challenger. For a foreign investor that expects to enforce rights in software, content or packaging artwork in Vietnam, a certificate is the quickest way to satisfy a market surveillance officer, a customs officer or a court of ownership.

A foreign owner registers through a representative with a power of attorney, a copy of the work or, for software, identifying material such as extracts of source code, and documents showing how it acquired the rights if it is not the author: an assignment, an employment relationship or a commissioning contract. Law No. 131/2025/QH15 allows the copyright authority to invalidate a certificate on its own finding that it was issued on false or misleading information, so the chain of title must be documented accurately.

Who owns works made by employees and contractors

Vietnamese law separates the author, the individual who creates the work, from the copyright owner, who holds the economic rights. Where an organisation assigns the creation of a work to an author who is its member or employee, or commissions it under a contract, the organisation that assigned or commissioned the work is the owner of the economic rights and of the right of publication, unless the parties agree otherwise (Article 39). A Vietnamese company therefore owns, by default, software written by its developers in the course of their duties and content commissioned under contract from an agency or freelancer.

The default should not be relied on alone. The employment contract or job description should state that works created in the course of employment belong to the company; a commissioning contract should state expressly that all economic rights in the deliverables, including source code, documentation and preparatory materials, vest in the client on creation or are assigned to it on payment; and where a foreign parent is to own the rights, the Vietnamese company should assign them in writing. Assignment and licence contracts for copyright must be in writing and identify the rights, scope, term, price and payment (Articles 46 to 48). Where a software development or licence agreement also transfers know-how or technology from or to Vietnam, check whether it is a technology transfer that must be registered (Technology transfer and licensing).

Moral rights

The author keeps moral rights (Article 19): to give the work its title, to be named on it, to be credited when it is published or used, and to protect the integrity of the work against distortion, mutilation or modification that harms the author's honour or reputation. These rights cannot be transferred and, except for the right of publication, stay with the author even where the employer or client owns the economic rights (Article 45). In practice this matters most for software, advertising and design work, which is constantly modified. A contract should record the author's consent to modification, adaptation and use without attribution so far as the law allows, and the company should keep records identifying the authors of significant works.

Software: protection, licensing and backups

A computer program, whether in source code or object code, is protected as a literary work (Article 22), together with its documentation. The owner has the exclusive right to reproduce, adapt, distribute and communicate it to the public, including by making it available online. A lawful user may make one backup copy solely to replace a copy that is lost or fails, and may not transfer it to anyone else; Law No. 131/2025/QH15 adds that where the program is provided as software as a service or through an online platform, backup rights depend on the licence terms. The functional ideas, algorithms and interfaces underlying a program are not protected by copyright as such, which is why source code should also be treated as a trade secret (Patents, utility solutions and industrial designs).

Software licences are copyright licences. They must be in writing and specify the rights granted, which may be exclusive or non-exclusive, the territory, term, price and the parties' obligations. Since Law No. 115/2025/QH15 took effect on 1 April 2026, the Law on Technology Transfer has listed software, algorithms and data among the objects of technology transfer. A standard licence of off-the-shelf software is not usually treated as a technology transfer, but a bespoke licence that delivers source code, know-how and training from a foreign licensor to a Vietnamese licensee may be, and should be checked against the registration rule. Royalties paid abroad for software bear foreign contractor tax at the royalty rate (Paying foreign suppliers and group companies).

Related rights and collective management

Performers, producers of phonograms and video recordings, and broadcasting organisations hold related rights in their performances, recordings and broadcasts, generally for 50 years (Articles 29 to 34), and Law No. 131/2025/QH15 extends related rights protection to encrypted programme-carrying cable signals. A business that plays background music in shops, hotels, restaurants or on hold lines, or streams music and video to customers, needs licences from the rights holders, usually through collective management organisations authorised under Article 56, such as the Vietnam Center for Protection of Music Copyright (VCPMC) for musical works. The tariffs are set by the organisations under Government rules, and unlicensed public performance is a common ground for administrative complaints and fines.

Artificial intelligence: training, outputs and labelling

Law No. 131/2025/QH15 inserted a new clause 5 in Article 7 of the IP Law. From 1 April 2026 organisations and individuals may use lawfully published documents and data that are publicly accessible, including those related to intellectual property rights, for scientific research, testing and training artificial intelligence systems, provided that the use does not unreasonably prejudice the rights and legitimate interests of authors and rights holders; where the material is protected by copyright or related rights, the use must also comply with regulations to be issued by the Government (FAQ 85). The exception is narrower than it may first appear. It covers only material that was lawfully published and is publicly accessible, so content behind paywalls or obtained in breach of terms of access is outside it; it is subject to the three-step style limit of unreasonable prejudice; and its detailed conditions, such as any opt-out by rights holders, await the Government's regulations. Developers training models in Vietnam should keep records of the sources used and the basis for using them.

The law also provides that the Government will regulate how rights arise and are established in subject matter created with the use of AI systems. Pending those regulations, the established position remains that copyright protects works created by human authors, and that output generated without meaningful human creative contribution is unlikely to be protected; applicants for registration should describe accurately the role of AI and of the human author. Separately, Law No. 134/2025/QH15 on Artificial Intelligence, passed on 10 December 2025 and in force from 1 March 2026, classifies AI systems by risk into high, medium and low tiers, requires providers to mark AI-generated audio, image and video content in a machine-readable form, requires deployers to disclose content that could be mistaken for authentic events or persons, and prohibits collecting or processing data for AI development in breach of the laws on data, personal data protection, intellectual property and cybersecurity. Systems already in operation have until 1 March 2027, or 1 September 2027 in health care, education and finance, to comply, and providers of certain high-risk systems need a commercial presence or authorised representative in Vietnam.