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.

Lawyers from Tilleke & Gibbins’ intellectual property team have written the Vietnam chapter of Practical Law’s IP in Business Transactions Global Guide, a high-level comparative overview of intellectual property laws and regulations across 34 jurisdictions.

Background The Trademark Office of Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) is making significant, concrete progress in revising the trademark registrar’s Trademark Examination Manual, with the aim of bringing Thailand’s trademark examination standards into alignment with international standards for trademark examination. This comes on the heels of the DIP’s recent efforts to improve examination standards for patent applications by revising the form for patent office actions to include sufficient reasoning and clarifying details on each instruction (the DIP is also currently working to resolve the lengthy backlog in patent examination and registration by increasing the number of examiners and proposing amendments to patent and design law). New draft manual On 28 January 2021 the DIP unveiled the first draft of the updated Trademark Examination Manual in a webinar attended by trademark lawyers, practitioners and trademark owners. The new draft manual seeks to create increased consistency through the establishment of clear and fair criteria to be used in examining trademark applications. The proposed revisions are based on the study of trademark laws and subordinate legislation, decisions of the Board of Trademarks, judgments from Thailand’s Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court, and previous problems that have arisen in the course of examination. Key proposals Some of the most interesting draft revisions are summarised below. When determining the distinctiveness of a mark, there are five levels of distinctiveness (from highest to lowest): fanciful, arbitrary, suggestive, descriptive and generic. A mark consisting of geometric shapes or general designs (eg, infinite or repeated textile patterns) will not be registrable. There are clearer criteria for registering marks consisting of the names of individuals, the full names of juristic persons and trade names. In determining whether a mark is a geographical name, the mark will be considered based on the knowledge and perception of Thai