Establishment of the National Office on Inventions; Initial steps for development of the system for the protection of industrial property towards the market economy.

Perceiving the role and the significance of the policies on the protection of inventions for promoting the creative potential among the public, already in 1980 the Innovation and Discovery Division started to study and prepare a draft of legislation on the protection of inventions. The draft Decree was submitted by the State Committee of Science and it was approved by the Government on 23 January 1981 (Decree No 31-CP promulgated together with Regulations on technical Innovations, production rationalization and invention). In this Decree, apart from new provisions on the award schemes and management of innovative activities (replacing the provisions of Decree 20-CP), for the first time, Decree 31-CP stipulated the protection of inventions - the most important subject matter of industrial property. The promulgation of Decree 31-CP was an important milestone paving the way for implementing industrial property activities in Vietnam and laid the ground for founding a State competent agency with the function of establishing industrial property rights and management of industrial property rights - the agency is the National Office of Inventions later.