On September 10, Noppramart Thammateeradaycho, a counsel in Tilleke & Gibbins’ dispute resolution group in Bangkok, participated in a session on the Ashton Asoke condominium dispute, hosted by YTHAC, the young members group of the Thailand Arbitration Center. The discussion was held on the Clubhouse platform and focused on the long-running dispute over the Ashton Asoke luxury high-rise condominium, which has recently returned to the spotlight after a Central Administrative Court ruling on July 30, 2021, revoked the condominium’s construction permit and other related governmental authorizations. As the condominium has already been completed and is occupied by residents, the stakes of the dispute are very high. The speakers in the YTHAC session addressed the role of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in the Ashton Asoke dispute, and explained how ADR practices such as arbitration can potentially lead to a solution to the impasse.

On September 9 and 10, Michelle Ray-Jones, as president of the Licensing Executives Society (LES) in Thailand, together with Ploynapa Julagasigorn, the LES Thailand secretary, hosted a virtual annual conference 2021 under the theme “Supporting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Challenges and Opportunities During the COVID-19 Era.” The conference was broken down into four main sessions featuring 20 guest speakers on a wide range of topics in response to the pandemic. The first session, “COVID-19: Impacts & Plans for the future,” highlighted COVID-19 vaccine development, addressed the impact of increased remote working arrangements on infrastructure and operations, and covered challenges and shifts in human resources, sales, services, insurance, legal operations, and the use of advanced technology—such as AI-generated inventions in biotech and related IP ownership issues. In the second session, “Future Technology and Licensing Trends,” speakers discussed tech and licensing lessons learned in 2020, licensing trends in 2021, and predictions for the near future. The third session explored how food, nutrition, and agriculture collectively play a crucial role in helping humanity recover from this pandemic. The speakers talked about the booming plant-based products industry and discussed its effects on the agricultural landscape and sustainable agriculture initiatives in Southeast Asia. The last session focused on global climate change and decarbonization efforts, with speakers highlighting some decarbonization solutions and exploring possible technology-transfer strategies to enable the sharing of technologies that can fight climate change.

On September 9, Joseph Tomkiewicz, partner and co-chair of Tilleke & Gibbins’ regional energy practice, was moderator for a webinar titled “Proceeding to the Next Stages of Thailand Solar: Forecast to 2025 and Vision to 2035,” organized by Neoventure. Joined by three high-profile professionals in the energy industry in ASEAN, Joseph led an interactive session that focused on the direction of solar energy development in Thailand —especially the expected rise of floating and rooftop solar over the next decade. He also steered the discussion to cover analysis and forecast of policies and incentives for each type of solar project in Thailand, scrutinized market updates and compared business models, and led the panelists in reviewing commercial trends. The session was joined by key players in the energy industry who will have a significant role in shaping and growing the solar energy industry in Asia.

Chandavya Ing, an associate in the intellectual property group of Tilleke & Gibbins’ Phnom Penh office, coauthored an article titled “The Fate of Dependent Patents in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam—A Comparison with the Situation in Germany and India” with Prof. Dr. Heinz Goddar, a patent attorney and partner in the Munich office of Boehmer & Boehmer. The article appeared in the September 2021 issue of les Nouvelles, the journal of the Licensing Executives Society International (LESI). Dependent patents are new patents that also rely on a previous one, such as when an invention builds on or adds new technology to a previous patented invention. This approach to securing commercial rights for progressive inventions is often seen in patent-heavy fields such as telecommunications and advanced technology. Commercializing a dependent patent without infringing the earlier patent (i.e., the one that it depends on) requires licensing from the holder of the earlier patent. If this proves unworkable, the dependent patent cannot go to market. While this may ensure that the original patent rights are upheld, such an impasse can also block innovation and progress. As the authors explain in the article, Germany and India (as well as other countries such as Russia and Taiwan) will enlist a state party in an effort to resolve any such situation that arises, often through a de-blocking mechanism such as a compulsory or non-voluntary license. The article then looks in detail at the de-blocking mechanisms and provisions in the legal and regulatory environment of various countries in Southeast Asia, before offering comparison to the situation in Germany and India. Overall, the authors conclude that a more active (but balanced) use of compulsory licensing—which already exists in many Southeast Asian countries but is not frequently employed outside of the pharmaceutical sector—might help clear patent-related obstacles