November 30, 2021
WIPO Deputy Director General Hasan Kleib awarded three young Vietnamese inventors with the IP Youth Ambassadorship for Viet Nam, in the presence of WIPO Director General Daren Tang and Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc on November 29, 2021.
The ceremony took place at the WIPO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The award was given to Mr. DO Trong Minh Duc, Ms. TRAN Nguyen Khanh An, and Mr. NGUYEN Hoang Phuc in recognition of their pioneering work.
The team are the first WIPO IP Youth Ambassadors from the Asia and Pacific Region, and have been awarded the prestigious title for their invention, VIHELM.
To address the limitations of existing protective measures for frontline workers and medical staff against the COVID-19 virus, they developed a mobile isolation helmet with ventilators and additional functionalities for comfort. The group called their helmet VIHELM, and protected their intellectual property (IP) by filing an international patent application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in 2021 for their innovative protective headwear, and a trademark for the VIHELM brand.
As IP Youth Ambassadors, they will help promote the importance of IP to innovators and creators in their region, and benefit from tailored support and IP education through WIPO Academy’s IP4Youth&Teachers service.