The prevalence of counterfeit drugs is on the rise in a large number of countries, including Thailand. To help deal with these chal­lenges, a Memorandum of Under­standing (MoU) was signed on Febru­ary 14, 2008, initiating “Operation to Prevent and Suppress Drugs Violating Intellectual Property.” The signatories to the MoU include the Department of Intellectual Property, the Customs Department, the Royal Thai Police, the Department of Special Investigation, and the Pharma­ceutical Research and Manufacturers Association.

To obtain patent protection, patent owners are obligated to publicly disclose certain information about the invention. The specification must be explicitly disclosed in a manner sufficiently clear and complete in order to enable a person skilled in the art to understand how to implement and carry out the invention. This article illustrates the requirement through a case study of a patent application for the herb Kwao Krua.

In Thailand, much like in other jurisdictions, one of the most important factors in determining the registrability of a trademark application is the requirement that the mark must be sufficiently distinctive. By employing a case study involving the trademark AVERMEDIA, this article helps to elucidate the Thai Court’s dis­cretion in weighing whether an unusual combination of words which is used in an arbitrary manner can be considered suf­ficiently distinctive for registration.

Thailand has recently adopted new legislation on product liability. The new law is designed to protect consumers who incur damage from defective prod­ucts by imposing strict liability on those involved in the production and sale of products. From the perspective of an IP owner who may be manufacturing, selling, importing, or licensing technologies or trademarks to others to produce, import, or sell a product which may potentially cause harm to consumers, there are essen­tially three key points that must be kept in mind about this new legislation, as described in this article.

A little more than a year ago, Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health, acting on behalf of a post-coup military-appointed admin­istration, decided to issue the first set of compulsory licenses on three patented drugs. The three drugs were Merck’s antiretroviral efavirenz (Stocrin®), Abbott Laborato­ries’ antiretro­viral lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra®) and sanofi-aventis’ heart disease drug clopi­dogrel (Plavix®).

In some countries, having consensual sex could be deemed a criminal offense. Consider the situation where a man infected with AIDS intentionally has unprotected sex with a woman without informing her that he is HIV positive. This article considers how Thai law would regard such an act under the Penal Code.

“Why seven shareholders?” is a question businessmen have pestered corporate lawyers with for years, but it is about to become a thing of the past. The Thai government, prodded by the Commerce Ministry, is adopting major amendments to several partnership and corporate law provisions with the aim to simplify or do away with unnecessary statutory procedures under the Civil and Commercial Code. This article reviews the forthcoming amendments.

Last month, EMI Thailand, one of the four largest music labels along with SONY-BMG, Warner, and Universal, closed its CD and DVD manufacturing operation in Thailand. This is not good news for the music entertainment industry in Thailand, as not only does it reflect a drastic change of lifestyle of music consumers, but it also demonstrates without a doubt that copyright piracy remains a big problem. EMI reported dramatic sales reductions because it could not compete with the low prices of pirated CDs and DVDs.