ASEAN countries have entered into a broad range of free trade agreements (FTAs), and many more FTAs are currently in the process of being negotiated. As both bilateral and multilateral FTAs begin to phase in, tariffs will be reduced or eliminated and business owners will be faced with advantages and disadvantages. On one hand, producers can benefit from tariff-free access to sell their goods to customers in overseas markets, and they may have access to potentially cheaper raw materials purchased from foreign suppliers.

In recent years, Thailand’s customs regime has come under increased international and domestic scrutiny. One reason is that Thailand remains one of the few countries that presume strict criminal liability for importers and their representatives, even where an under-declaration of customs duty is the result of a mistake and/or negligence.

While Vietnam represents a huge potential market for foreign investors in the pharmaceutical industry, the sector is heavily regulated and clear guidelines are not always available. To guide pharmaceutical clients in setting up a business, marketing products, and protecting their drugs from infringement in Vietnam, Tilleke & Gibbins’ commercial and patent experts have created an informational leaflet including the following contents:

The importance of intellectual assets can never be underestimated—they are the key to generating profits. Knowing your rights as they relate to such assets is therefore a vital step to ensuring that you can maximize the value of your IP.

Thailand’s Product Liability Act has been in force for six years but has not yet resulted in any landmark Supreme Court decisions. There are, however, many significant cases working their way through the legal system and business owners are beginning to feel the impact of the law, officially known as the Liability for Damages Arising from Unsafe Products Act.

With a population of 600 million, the combined economy of the 10 nations comprising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ranks as the ninth largest in the world. With the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) set to be realized on December 31 2015, most ASEAN countries must comply with the AEC Blueprint, which sets out guidelines for ASEAN to achieve its goal of becoming a single market by 2015. IP rights are an important issue in the blueprint.

In what marks the latest edition of the guide, Media, Advertising, and Entertainment Law Throughout the World 2014 has been published, to which Tilleke & Gibbins has contributed the Thailand and Vietnam chapters. The Thailand chapter, coauthored by Hassana Chira-aphakul and James Evans, attorney-at-law and consultant respectively in the firm’s IP department, is divided into sections covering media law, advertising law, entertainment law, and art law. The individual topics within each section are as follows:

This year’s edition of Media, Advertising, and Entertainment Law Throughout the World has been published, and Tilleke & Gibbins has contributed the Thailand and Vietnam chapters of the guide. Thomas J. Treutler, Tu Ngoc Trinh, and Thom Thi Mai Nguyen jointly authored the Vietnam chapter, which covers in detail issues related to media law, advertising law, entertainment law, and art law.