On February 15, 2022, Thailand’s cabinet approved in principle a package of incentives to promote electric vehicle (EV) adoption in Thailand, with the aim of making the country an EV manufacturing hub in Asia. A week later, the cabinet approved further draft regulations including specific information on customs duty reductions and exemptions for certain types of imported EVs. The plan includes both tax and non-tax incentives from 2022 until 2025. In the first two years (2022–2023), the package incentivizes the widespread use of EVs in Thailand by providing exemption or reduction of import duties and excise tax, as well as subsidies to increase the demand for EVs and attract investment in the EV industry. These incentives will cover the importation of completely built up (CBU) cars and motorcycles, and the local manufacturing of completely knocked down (CKD) vehicles in Thailand. For the following two years (2024–2025), the plan promotes the use of domestically produced EVs by eliminating the exemption or reduction of import duties for CBU vehicles while maintaining the other incentives (e.g., reduced excise tax rates, and subsidies). The aim of this is to make the cost of CBU vehicles higher than locally produced vehicles to encourage operators to produce EVs in the country to meet increasing demand. Additional measures encourage the manufacturing of EVs in Thailand, including exemption of import duties for parts imported between 2022 and 2025, and treatment of the value of imported battery cells as a cost of local manufacturing (up to 15% of an EV’s retail price). This is beneficial to local manufacturers of EVs, as their activities will be entitled to a more generous incentive package than importation of EVs. At their meeting on February 22, 2022, Thailand’s cabinet further approved draft subordinate regulations, including specific reductions and exemptions of customs duty

Attorneys from Tilleke & Gibbins wrote the Thailand chapter for Licensing 2022, a comprehensive guide from Lexology Getting the Deal Through to licensing in 17 countries around the world. Two specialists from Tilleke & Gibbins’ Bangkok office—Alan Adcock, partner and deputy director of intellectual property, and Kasama Sriwatanakul, senior associate—authored the Licensing 2021 Thailand chapter, which covers the following topics: Laws: Unfair Contract Terms Act, Trade Competition Act, pre-contractual disclosure, registration of international licensing, implied obligations, Civil and Commercial Code, Trademark Act, Patent Act, and Trade Secrets Act. Intellectual property issues: Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, PCT, TRIPs. Contesting the validity of licensor’s IP rights, invalidity and expiry of IP rights, evidence of use, licensing unregistered IP, opposability requirements, sub-licensing, co-owners, trade secrets, and copyright. Software licensing: Perpetual licensing, import/export restrictions, improvements and modifications, user restrictions, and legal developments. Competition law: Trade Competition Act, specific restrictions on licensing agreements, and significant court decisions. Indemnification, disclaimers, and damages: Prevalence and enforceability of indemnity provisions and contractual waivers of damages. Termination: Conditions, indemnity, agency, and impact on sub-licenses. Bankruptcy: Impact of licensee bankruptcy on licensor and vice versa, protection, and rights to terminate. Dispute resolution: Governing law, arbitration, enforcement, injunctions, contractual waivers Royalties and payments: Currency conversion, tax, remittance restrictions, and jurisdiction-specific payments. The Thailand chapter is available below as a PDF. Tilleke & Gibbins also contributed the Vietnam chapter to Licensing 2022. To browse all 17 jurisdictions covered by the guide, please visit the Getting the Deal Through website.

Attorneys from Tilleke & Gibbins have written the Vietnam chapter for Licensing 2022, a comparative guide from Lexology Getting the Deal Through to licensing law and practice in 17 countries around the world. Licensing 2022, a guide that provides an overview of a wide range of licensing relationships, including licensing of copyrights, trademarks, and patents; software licenses; technology transfer agreements; and franchise agreements. The book also addresses issues of royalties and other payments, taxes, competition law, and termination of licensing relationships. The Vietnam chapter was authored by Linh Thi Mai Nguyen, partner and head of Tilleke & Gibbins’ trademark team in Vietnam; Son Thai Hoang, trademark executive; and Chi Lan Dang, associate, of Tilleke & Gibbins’ trademark team, along with corporate and commercial senior associate Tu Ngoc Trinh, who has extensive experience in franchising and competition law. The Vietnam chapter is available below as a PDF. Tilleke & Gibbins also contributed the Thailand chapter to Licensing 2022. To browse all 17 jurisdictions covered by the guide, please visit the Getting the Deal Through website.

Thailand’s Trade Competition Commission issued new guidelines on unfair trade practices in response to new practices that have arisen due to changing business models and other economic developments.