With the latest COVID-19 outbreak in Thailand becoming more severe and widespread, travel restrictions and social distancing measures may prevent applicants for patents, petty patents, and design patents from submitting documents or amendments by the required deadline. In order to ease the burden on applicants, the Director-General of the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) has issued a notification, effective on April 16, 2021, extending the deadline for submission of documents and amendments in response to office actions with the DIP. According to the notification, any office action deadline which was due to fall from April 16 to May 31, 2021 will now automatically be postponed to May 31, 2021. Applicants may submit their responses to office actions from June 1 – June 30, 2021. The extended deadlines apply to the following procedures: Amendments in response to office actions; Submission of documents per an office action or examiner’s instructions; and, Requests for extensions of time for amendments or document submission in response to office actions. Applicants who are able to do so may still choose to submit any documentation, amendments, and requests for extensions within the original deadline stipulated in an office action.

Laos’ Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) published its Decision on Patents and Petty Patents No. 1714/MOST, dated December 15, 2020, in the Official Gazette on December 23, 2020. The decision is a replacement for and comprehensive revision of a similarly named 2012 decision, and it is the latest step in the country’s steady efforts to strengthen its patent regime. The new decision clarifies and simplifies many key points, the most significant of which are detailed below. Priority date. Applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty have a 31-month time limit for entering the national phase, counting from the priority date. This improves on the 2012 decision, which set the time limit at 30 months. Submission of original documents. If the pre-filled, unsigned form for the power of attorney and deed of assignment is submitted, scanned copies of the notarized power of attorney and deed of assignment must be submitted within 15 days (down from 60 days under the 2012 decision). However, the original documents still must be submitted within 60 days. International classification. Applicants can ask the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) to indicate the international class of patent and petty patent applications. If there are amendments to the class, applicants can file an amendment form with the DIP free of charge. International classification was not mentioned in the 2012 decision. Publication timeline. Applications for patents or petty patents will be published in the 19th month after the application filing or priority date. The 2012 decision, in contrast, did not mention the publication timeline. Opposition. The procedures for an opposition to a patent or petty patent application are clear and concise under the new decision, whereas opposition was not mentioned in the 2012 decision. Examination request period. While the 2012 decision gave only a broad description of examination, the

Following the successful launch of “fast-track renewals” in March 2021, Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) is continuing its efforts to better serve brand owners by launching the “First Action Fast Track” program. The program expedites the issuance of a first office action for qualifying trademarks in Thailand to within six months from the date of filing the application, at no additional cost. The program was announced in a notification inked by the director general of the DIP on April 5, 2021, and made available to the public on April 16, 2021. To benefit from this expedited process, applications must comply with all of the fast-track conditions specified in the DIP notification: The total number of goods or services must not exceed 10 items. The description of goods or services should follow the DIP’s suggested description manual (available at https://tmsearch.ipthailand.go.th/). No amendment (such as recordal of name or address change), recordal of assignment or inheritance, or request to prove acquired distinctiveness through use is made on the application. Though not stated in the notification, we suggest that applicants or representatives who wish to benefit from a Fast-Track examination explicitly indicate this on their application. This new expedited practice is a positive, brand-friendly step from the DIP that is aligned with international benchmarks, and it has the potential to boost trademark-related activities in the country to enhance Thailand’s competitiveness. For more details on this development, or on any aspect of securing intellectual property rights in Thailand, please contact Tilleke & Gibbins at [email protected].

Experts from Tilleke & Gibbins have authored the Vietnam chapters of the latest edition of the Practical Law Life Sciences Global Guide.