Why do some copyright cases take longer than the statutory time limit?

Copyright registration is a procedure to record and protect the legal rights and interests of organizations and individuals in relation to works. The law has prescribed a time limit for processing applications to ensure transparency and efficiency in state management. However, in reality, there are still cases where applications take longer than the statutory time limit. So, why do some copyright applications take longer to process than the statutory time limit? The following VCD article will help you.

1Overview of copyright

Copyright is the right of an organization or individual to a work they create or own. This right arises automatically from the time the work is created and expressed in a certain material form.

Copyright registration is not a condition for the creation of rights, but it is an important legal basis to prove the rights to the work when a dispute occurs. The Certificate of Copyright Registration issued by a competent state agency is evidence establishing the connection between the work and the right holder, facilitating the protection and commercial exploitation of copyright.

 Legal regulations on the time limit for processing copyright registration applications

Regarding the administrative time limit, the Law on Intellectual Property stipulates: within 15 working days from the date of receiving a valid application, the state management agency is responsible for issuing a Certificate of Copyright Registration.

At the same time, guiding documents, decrees and public service portals further describe the practical process consisting of two stages: (i) reviewing, classifying, and considering the validity of the application (receiving and assessing stage) which is usually carried out within 01 month from the date of receiving the application according to the current administrative process; and (ii) assessing the content and issuing the Certificate within 15 working days from the date the application is determined to be valid.

Therefore, the total time “from application submission to obtaining a certificate” in practice is often longer than 15 working days due to the initial review step. These regulations are stated in the Intellectual Property Law and Decree 17/2023/ND-CP, along with information on the Public Service Portal of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Reasons why some applications take longer to process than the statutory time limit

The initial application is invalid or missing/unclear

According to Article 50 of the Intellectual Property Law and instructions on the application form: The Law requires the application form to be completed completely, in the correct form, and with mandatory information (name of the applicant, name of the author, summary of the work, origin, time, form of publication, commitment of responsibility, etc.). If the application lacks identification, documents proving ownership, copies of works, or the declaration is not clear, the receiving agency will request additional information, return the application, or request an explanation – this additional information process will prolong the actual processing time. Therefore, “15 working days” only applies from the date the application is determined to be valid; the time for the application to reach that status may be extended depending on the level of deficiencies.

The actual time for the review and appraisal stage

Many guidance documents and the Public Service Portal clearly state that the procedure includes the step of “reviewing, classifying, and considering validity” with a time limit of about 01 month from the date of application submission. This stage is to filter out applications that are incorrect in form, duplicate, or need to be forwarded; therefore, even if the application is finally determined to be valid, the total time from application submission to granting the certificate usually includes the initial review time. This explains why many law and service organizations estimate the actual total time to be ~45–60 days in practice.

Files with complex elements of rights subjects (co-authorship, assignment, change of ownership, derivative works)

When the file involves multiple subjects (co-creation), internal disputes, or when the origin of the work needs to be verified (e.g., derivative works, previous assignment of rights), the appraisal agency must collect and compare documents, and may require the parties to provide contracts/authorizations, leading to a longer appraisal time compared to simple files. These situations also easily lead to requests for external verification (e.g., contacting foreign organizations and authors), resulting in a longer processing time.

Volume of applications, capacity and internal issues of the receiving agency

During peak periods (e.g. after policy changes, registration incentive programs, or when there are many applications from online services), the workload increases dramatically. As a result, the actual processing time increases due to human resources, holidays, or technical problems (online receiving system). Information on the process and implementation time is announced by the Department/Ministry but does not force the agency to issue an immediate grant in all situations if there is still a request for review.

The above is the article “Why do some copyright applications take longer to process than the statutory time limit?” sent to you by VCD. We hope this article is useful to you.

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