Changes to how Thailand handles well-known marks mean that rights holders will have to change their strategies and best practices to protect their marks.In Thailand, protection over a trademark is usually granted once a trademark is registered. A registrar will not grant the registration of a mark that is identical or similar to a prior-registered trademark, as it may lead to confusion among the public as to the owner or origin of the goods.

Vietnam’s new Law on Cyber-Information Security (LCIS) was passed on November 19, 2015, and it will take effect this year on July 1. This is the first comprehensive law ever issued in Vietnam on the security of “cyber-information,” which is information exchanged in a telecommunications or computer network environment.

In 2011, when Myanmar embarked on a series of political and economic reforms, there was a surge in demand for real estate. Demand quickly outpaced supply, resulting in an undersupply of quality office space and housing. By 2014, rental prices in Yangon’s prime areas had climbed to as high as USD 100 per square meter, rivaling those found in lower Manhattan and over three times those in prime areas of Bangkok.

Indonesia has set out, for the first time, regulations on the procedures to record license agreements for trademarks, patents, copyright, and industrial designs. Although there was previously a requirement to record license agreements, recordation was not actually possible in practice due to a lack of implementing regulations and guidelines.

In the August 2015 edition of Informed Counsel, we discussed Thailand’s Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot Program (PPH Pilot Program), in which the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) and the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) collaborated to accelerate the patent examination process of Thai applications based on prior Japanese applications.

On January 29, 2016, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha issued a statement on Thailand’s national agenda and the subject of intellectual property (IP). He emphasized the importance of IP rights and the role of Thai authorities in enforcing these rights, saying:

In order to receive royalties, a trademark owner may license out its trademark rights to another party. To license trademark rights, a trademark license agreement must be made in writing and registered at the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP), in accordance with Section 68 of the Thai Trademark Act. If a trademark license agreement is not registered, it will be void, according to Section 152 of the Civil and Commercial Code and the support of various Supreme Court judgments (Decisions 7770/2547, 6436/2543, and 6190/2550).

Amendments to Thailand’s Trademark Act were published in the Royal Gazette on April 29, 2016. The amendments will become effective on July 28, 90 days after the publication date. Among the amendments is a new chapter on trademark registration which introduces a number of changes that set the stage for Thailand to accede to the Madrid Protocol in 2016.