We are approaching the halfway mark of 2015, and many in the international business community—particularly those with investments in Southeast Asia—have questions about the current status of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).The AEC was originally scheduled to take effect on January 1 of this year, but member states pushed back the deadline to December 31, as many needed more time to prepare. With only half a year to go, this article will focus on Thailand’s laws and regulations and how they match up with the provisions of the AEC.

The first edition of Global Agriculture Law, a Q&A-style guide that provides detailed overviews of agriculture law worldwide, has been published. The guide covers key practical issues, including those affecting agricultural companies and cooperatives, land ownership and usage rights, tax and financing, crop seed business, plant variety right protection, GM crops, importing animals, gene patents, and product liability.The Thailand chapter, written by lawyers at Tilleke & Gibbins, delves into the following main issues:

Global Agriculture Law (1st Ed.), a guide that presents a Q&A-style overview of agriculture law in 22 jurisdictions around the world, has been published. The Vietnam chapter of the guide, written by Kien Trung Trinh, Dung Thi Kim Vu, and Linh Duy Mai of Tilleke & Gibbins, covers key practical issues including those related to agricultural policy, acquisition of agricultural companies, acquisition of agricultural land, crop seed business, plant variety rights, genetically modified crops, importing animals and gene patents, and agricultural safety and product liability.

Before you embark on designing and building your dream home—or business—in Thailand, pause for a moment.  As exciting and full of potential as your project may be, the process of completing a construction project involves many rules and regulations, as well as reliance on contractors. Therefore, before committing yourself, you should know what you are getting yourself into and plan accordingly.

Thailand’s roadmap of food safety, which was approved in 2004, aims to promote the Kingdom as the “kitchen of the world.” Animal feed, i.e., food given to farm animals, plays a major role in the food safety regime—it is part of the stages of food production, dubbed “farm-to-table,” and is an integral component in the overarching food chain. Animal feed must be as safe as meat for human consumption, and therefore registration, inspection, and control of animal feed are vigorously regulated by the regulatory authorities.

Recently, the Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), under the supervision of Division III of the Investigation and Suppression Bureau, Royal Thai Customs Department (Customs), has developed an iteration of the software program that brand owners can use to record their marks for monitoring. In this article, we will discuss the new software program, cooperation with Customs, and Customs recordation with the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP).New Customs Software Program

As ASEAN works toward greater unification, a number of action plans have been devised to accelerate integration. One such plan is the ASEAN Intellectual Property Rights Action Plan 2011-2015 (ASEAN IPR Action Plan), which has formulated strategic goals to increase the competitiveness of the ASEAN Economic Community with respect to the use of intellectual property.

The Madrid System for the international registration of marks, governed by the Madrid Protocol, is gaining popularity across Southeast Asia. Several countries in the region are preparing to implement Madrid as part of their commitments toward regional integration via the ASEAN Economic Community, which will be created at the end of 2015.