Joint Circular No. 102/2006/TTLT/BTC-BKHCN guides the financial management for the Program to support the development of intellectual property assets of enterprises.

JOINT CIRCULAR

Guidelines for financial management of

The Program to Support the Development of Intellectual Property Assets of Enterprises

______________________

Pursuant to Decree No. 60/2003/NĐ-CP dated June 6, 2003 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of the Law on State Budget;

Pursuant to Decision No. 68/2005/QĐ-TTg dated April 4, 2005 of the Prime Minister approving the Program to Support the Development of Intellectual Property Assets of Enterprises;

Pursuant to Decision No. 36/2006/QĐ-TTg dated February 8, 2006 of the Prime Minister promulgating the Management Regulation of the Program to Support the Development of Intellectual Property Assets of Enterprises;

I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. Object and Scope of Application:

These Circulars provide guidelines for financial management applicable to the Program to Support the Development of Intellectual Property Assets of Enterprises pursuant to Decision No. 68/2005/QĐ-TTg dated April 4, 2005 of the Prime Minister approving the Program to Support the Development of Intellectual Property Assets of Enterprises and Decision No. 36/2006/QĐ-TTg dated February 8, 2006 of the Prime Minister promulgating the Management Regulation of the Program to Support the Development of Intellectual Property Assets of Enterprises (hereinafter referred to as the Program).

2. Sources of Funding for Implementing the Program:

- State budget (central and local) for implementing the Program;

- Contributions from organizations and individuals both within and outside the country;

3. Procedures for preparing budgets, allocating, transferring budget expenditures, and finalizing accounts shall be carried out in accordance with the Law on State Budget and current regulations.

4. Definitions:

- Intellectual property assets are products created by humans through creative labor, including: literary, artistic, and scientific works; computer software; inventions; utility models; industrial designs; trademarks; geographical indications; trade names; layout-designs of integrated circuits; new plant varieties, etc.

- Exploitation of intellectual property assets refers to the application and utilization of such assets in practice to create benefits and advantages for the owners, participants in their application and utilization, and society.

- Intellectual property activities are activities related to intellectual property objects, including: propaganda, training, information dissemination about intellectual property; establishment, confirmation, protection, exploitation, management, and development of value of intellectual property objects.

- Exploitation of intellectual property information involves using information about intellectual property objects in intellectual property information databases, including: information retrieval, building information packages according to technical fields serving research, implementation, confirmation, protection, exploitation, management, and development of intellectual property objects, etc.

- The subject matter of contracts under this Circular includes assets to be delivered, work to be performed as agreed upon: Propaganda and training on intellectual property, supporting enterprises to organize intellectual property activities; supporting the establishment, exploitation, protection, and development of intellectual property assets of enterprises both domestically and internationally; supporting enterprises to exploit intellectual property information.

II. SPECIFIC PROVISIONS

1. Contents of Expenditures of the Program:

a) Expenditures for implementing the contents of the Program as stipulated in Clause 2, Article 1 of Decision No. 68/2005/QĐ-TTg dated April 4, 2005 of

b) Common expenditures of the Program (at central level):

- Expenditures for information dissemination and propaganda about the Program;

- Expenditures for conferences, seminars, mid-term reviews, and final summaries of the Program;

- Remuneration for responsibilities of members of the Steering Committee, Secretariat, and Head of the Program Office.

- Outbound and inbound travel expenses;

- Regular expenditures for the permanent office of the Program Office.

- Expenditures for surveys and studies to serve the construction, review, and approval of projects implementing the Program;

- Expenditures for purchasing equipment and supplies to serve the activities of the Steering Committee, Secretariat, and Program Office.

- Other expenditures directly related to the activities of the Program.

c) Common expenditures of project management agencies at the local level: Depending on specific requirements, the Chairperson of the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-administered cities shall specify the contents and levels of expenditure according to the provisions of the Law on State Budget.

2. Levels of remuneration for responsibilities of members of the Steering Committee, Secretariat of the Program, and Head of the Program Office are calculated based on the current minimum wage rate of the state for officials, civil servants, and armed forces personnel as follows:

a) Steering Committee:

- Chairman: Coefficient 0.6 of the minimum wage/person/month;

- Members: Coefficient 0.5 of the minimum wage/person/month;

b) Secretariat:

- Chairman: Coefficient 0.5 of the minimum wage/person/month;

- Members: Coefficient 0.4 of the minimum wage/person/month.

c) Program Office:

Head of the Program Office: Coefficient 0.5 of the minimum wage/person/month;

3. Levels of expenditure from the state budget:

Depending on each activity, the state budget will ensure the full or partial total approved funding of the project (state budget funds shall not be used to purchase assets, except for assets (if any) serving the common activities of the permanent offices of the program at the central and local levels), specifically:

a) The state budget ensures 100% of the funding for the following activities of the program:

- Propaganda and training on intellectual property, including:

+ Organizing propaganda on intellectual property for enterprises in regular columns on intellectual property and programs for enterprises on mass media of the central government, ministries, sectors, and localities.

+ Organizing specialized seminars and training sessions on intellectual property for intellectual property management officials and enterprises under the jurisdiction of ministries, sectors, and localities according to current regulations.

- Compiling and issuing guidance materials on intellectual property for enterprises; guiding methods for registering intellectual property both domestically and internationally; providing and guiding the exploitation of information sources from domestic and international intellectual property systems.

- Establishing and maintaining hotlines, online pages, and permanent advisory units to support enterprises; hiring experts for support and advice (if necessary); purchasing and issuing materials to serve support and advisory activities.

- For common activities of the Program.

- For building, registering, exploiting, protecting, and developing intellectual property rights related to geographical indications, including: supporting the evaluation of local specialties to determine the necessity for protection; identifying the subject entitled to use geographical indications; determining the distinctiveness of products bearing geographical names; selecting forms of protection and conducting procedures to establish rights; organizing management of the use, protection, and development of the value of geographical indications.

- For research, construction, and dissemination of models promoting the transfer of intellectual property; researching and guiding the determination of methods for valuing intellectual property to serve enterprises during the process of separation, shareholding, and other common activities of the Program.

b) The state budget supports from 50% to 70% of the total project cost approved by the competent authority (excluding the value of existing physical assets participating in the implementation of the project from the approved total project cost to determine the percentage (%) of state budget support); the specific level is decided by the authority approving the project, specifically for the contents of the program:

- Supporting enterprises to organize intellectual property activities (guiding the establishment and implementation of policies and strategies for intellectual property activities in enterprises, such as guiding organizational structure, human resources, investment, and necessary activities to build, establish, exploit, and protect their intellectual property and avoid infringing on the intellectual property rights of organizations or individuals).

- Supporting the establishment, exploitation, protection, and development of intellectual property rights of enterprises both domestically and internationally, including:

+ Supporting enterprises in designing, registering for protection, exploiting, and developing the value of trademarks and industrial designs (popularizing knowledge, requirements for design, registration for protection, exploitation, and development of the value of trademarks and industrial designs);

+ Supporting enterprises in building and developing intellectual property rights for scientific and technological innovation achievements (encouraging creative labor in enterprises; incorporating intellectual property information into scientific and technological research and innovation activities; establishing, exploiting, and protecting intellectual property rights for scientific and technological innovation products).

+ Supporting enterprises in registering for protection, managing, exploiting, and developing the value of new plant varieties: advising and guiding enterprises in registering for protection, exploiting, and managing the exploitation of new plant varieties; supporting promotional and introduction activities for new plant varieties.

+ Supporting enterprises in registering for protection, exploiting, and developing the value of computer software and literary-artistic works (advising and guiding enterprises in registering for protection, exploiting, and implementing measures to prevent unauthorized copying or use of computer software and literary-artistic works; supporting promotional and introduction activities for computer software products and literary-artistic works).

- Supporting enterprises in exploiting intellectual property information, including:

+ Building and regularly updating databases and intellectual property information products serving the needs of enterprises.

+ Guiding the exploitation of available sources of information.

+ Training enterprises' skills in searching for intellectual property information.

4. Allocation of funds for the implementation of the Program:

+ Funds for implementing requirements for information security at different levels in the operations of state agencies and organizations funded by the state budget;

- Ensuring funds for common activities of the program at the central level, funds approved for projects managed by the central government.

- Ensuring support for provinces and centrally-administered cities to implement projects assigned by the central government for local management:

+ 70% of the total project cost covered by the state budget (for provinces and centrally-administered cities receiving additional balance transfers from the central budget). Specifically, for mountainous provinces, the central budget supports 90% of the total project cost covered by the state budget.

+ 30% of the total project cost covered by the state budget (for provinces and centrally-administered cities with a percentage (%) allocation of revenue sharing between the central and local budgets).

- Ensuring the activities of the Steering Committee, specialized units for incident response, incident response teams at the local level, and tasks assigned to localities as stipulated in Point b, Clause 2, Article 17 of Decision No. 05/2017/QĐ-TTg.

Ensuring part of the funds to implement projects assigned by the central government for local management, including:

- For provinces and centrally-administered cities receiving additional balance transfers from the central budget: Ensuring 30% of the total project cost covered by the state budget. Specifically, for mountainous provinces, the local budget ensures 10% of the total project cost covered by the state budget.

- For provinces and centrally-administered cities with a percentage (%) allocation of revenue sharing between the central and local budgets: Ensuring 70% of the total project cost covered by the state budget.

c) Raising funds from 30% to 50% of the approved total project cost (for projects where the state budget only partially supports the cost) by enterprises benefiting from the project. The specific level is decided by the project approval authority and clearly stated in the contract for implementing the project.

d) Contributions from domestic and foreign individuals:

- If contributions from organizations and individuals are accompanied by agreements on conditions for management and use, the management and use of this portion of funds will be carried out according to those agreements.

- If contributions from organizations and individuals are not accompanied by agreements on conditions for management and use, this portion of contributed funds will be deducted before calculating the percentage (%) between the state budget and enterprises benefiting from the project. At the same time, the management, use, and settlement of this portion of funds will be carried out according to current general regulations.

5. Preparing the budget estimate for the Program:

- For projects managed by the central government and common activities of the Program: Annually, at the time of preparing the state budget revenue and expenditure forecast, the Ministry of Science and Technology prepares the budget estimate for implementing projects managed by the central government and common activities of the Program, consolidating them into the Ministry's budget estimate and submitting it to the Ministry of Finance in accordance with the State Budget Law.

- For projects assigning tasks to localities for management: Implement according to the current provisions of the State Budget Law.

6. Allocation and budgeting of state budget expenditures:

a) On allocation:

- For projects under central management and general expenses of the Program: The central state budget allocates to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

- For projects where the central government assigns tasks to localities for management:

+ The portion of the local budget that is guaranteed shall be arranged in balance within the local budget and allocated according to the provisions of the State Budget Law.

+ The portion of the central budget support shall be arranged in the supplementary budget with specific purposes of the central state budget for the local budget and allocated according to the provisions of the State Budget Law.

b) The allocation of budgets for units: Implement according to the provisions of the State Budget Law.

7. Funding disbursement:

a) For funds from the central government budget:

- For centrally managed projects: The Ministry of Science and Technology withdraws the budget to spend according to progress and volume of work performed, consistent with the contract signed between the Program's Standing Office - the Ministry of Science and Technology and the project's main implementing units.

- General expenses of the Program are implemented according to the provisions of the State Budget Law.

- The budget for central state budget support to implement projects assigned tasks to localities for management: Support funds for localities in the form of supplementary budget with specific purposes.

b) For funding from the local budget: Implement according to the provisions of the State Budget Law, based on progress and volume of work performed, consistent with the contract signed between the local project management agency and the project's main implementing unit.

c) Actual state budget funds must be consistent with the structure between state budget funds and the raised contributions of enterprises benefiting from the project, as approved by the competent authority.

8. Accounting and settlement of Program funds:

- For centrally managed projects and general activities of the Program: Recorded in the chapter of the Ministry of Science and Technology (017A), type 11 item 01. The Ministry of Science and Technology is responsible for settling the funds for centrally managed projects and other Program expenses, consolidated into the annual settlement report of the Ministry of Science and Technology submitted to the Ministry of Finance according to current regulations.

- For projects where the central government assigns tasks to localities for management:

+ Recorded in the chapter of the local project management agency and corresponding items. The local project management agency is responsible for settling the project implementation funds with the competent authority according to the State Budget Law.

+ Settlement of central state budget support funds with specific purposes for the local budget is consolidated into the local budget settlement.

9. Inspection and handling of violations:

Annually, the Ministry of Science and Technology takes the lead (for centrally managed projects), the People's Committee of provinces and centrally governed cities or the Department of Science and Technology (if assigned) take the lead (for projects assigning tasks to localities for management) coordinate with relevant agencies and units to regularly or suddenly inspect the implementation of projects.

In case of non-compliance with plans, misuse of funds for improper purposes, then suspend and issue a decision to recover improperly used funds and deposit them into the state budget.

In case the raised contributions of enterprises benefiting from the project do not meet the schedule or do not comply with commitments in the contract, the state budget support will be reduced accordingly to the ratio of contribution to fund implementation of the project.

10. Financial handling when terminating contracts according to civil law regulations:

a) Completed contracts:

- Contracts completed and accepted as required, proceed with final settlement of Program funds according to current regulations.

- Contracts completed but not accepted as required, handle according to the provisions at Point 11 Part II "for projects not meeting requirements."

b) Uncompleted contracts:

- In cases where the project's main implementing party is an individual who has died and the contract must be executed by that individual, recover the unused allocated funds, do not recover the used funds.

- In cases where the contract subject no longer exists and both parties have compensated for losses, the compensation funds and unused allocated funds shall be returned to the state budget.

- In cases where the project's main implementing party is a legal entity or another subject, but the legal entity or subject ceases operations according to the law and the contract must be executed by that legal entity or subject, the financial handling of state budget funds allocated to the project shall be carried out according to related legal documents regarding the cessation of the legal entity or subject.

- In cases where the project's main implementing party unilaterally terminates the contract without violating the terms agreed upon by both parties regarding termination, or if there is no such agreement in the contract, recover 100% of the state funds allocated to the project.

- In cases where the project's main implementing party unilaterally terminates the contract while the state agency signing the contract violates the terms agreed upon regarding termination, do not recover the used funds of the project. The state agency signing the contract is responsible for informing the main implementing party and reporting to the superior management agency to resolve the responsibility handling of the state agency or unit violating the contract according to the law.

- In cases where the contract subject no longer exists and both parties agree to replace with a new subject, recover 100% of the state funds allocated to the old subject. If the results of the old subject constitute part of the new subject's results, consider the allocated funds as allocated to the new subject and continue executing the contract with the new subject.

The above provisions on financial handling when terminating contracts must be clearly stated in the contract signed between the parties.

11. For projects not meeting requirements:

When the project ends and the competent state management agency (the agency that approves the project) evaluates it as not meeting the requirements:

After checking and determining the implementation situation of the project, the permanent agency of the Program (for centrally managed projects) shall issue a report to the Minister of Science and Technology; for centrally assigned projects managed by local authorities, the project management agency at the local level shall issue a report to the Chairman of the People's Committee of the province or centrally governed city for consideration and decision to recover from 50% to 70% of the total budget funds already spent on the project portion that must be guaranteed by the state budget.

The recovery of state budget funds mentioned above shall be clearly stated in the contract assigning the main responsibility for implementing the project.

12. Responsibilities of relevant ministries and sectors: Ministries: Justice, Culture - Information, Agriculture and Rural Development, Fisheries, Education - Training, Trade, Industry, Health, and other relevant ministries and sectors shall cooperate and implement the tasks assigned according to Clause 3, Article 22 of the Management Regulation of the Program to Support the Development of Intellectual Property Assets of Enterprises issued together with Decision No. 36/2006/QĐ-TTg dated February 8, 2006.

III. IMPLEMENTATION ORGANIZATION

This Circular takes effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette. During implementation, if there are any difficulties, organizations, central ministries, and localities are requested to reflect them to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Science and Technology for coordinated resolution./.