Thailand’s long-awaited Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) was approved by the National Legislative Assembly today, February 28, 2019. It will now be passed to the monarch to be signed and endorsed, and will then be published in the Government Gazette before passing into law later this year.

On February 8, 2019, Thailand’s National Legislative Assembly passed a new draft of the Sap-Ing-Sith  Act, designed to eliminate certain restrictions and limitations for the ordinary lease of immovable property under the Civil and Commercial Code, and the lease of commercial and industrial real estate under the relevant governing laws. The law is expected to encourage the use of rights attached to immovable property which is transferrable and can be used as security/collateral to promote and support Thailand’s economic growth, as well as to boost the property market.

In recent years, Vietnam has become a magnet for high-tech investment, especially in the areas of mobile phones and mobile phone components, electronics, and software development. In step with the recent pronouncements of Vietnam’s leaders to continue promoting Vietnam as a leading destination for investment in this space, the government greeted the Year of the Pig by issuing a new decree setting forth strong incentives for investors in the science and high-tech sectors.

On January 23, 2019, the government of Vietnam issued Decree No. 07/2019/ND-CP (Decree 07) to amend and supplement Decree No. 68/2015/ND-CP on registration of nationality and rights towards aircraft (Decree 68). Decree 07 will take effect on March 11, 2019.Some key changes include the following:

On October 2, 2017, Indonesia officially became the hundredth country to accede to the Madrid Protocol, which came into effect a few months later, on January 2, 2018. Following accession to the protocol, Indonesia issued Government Regulation No. 22 of 2018 on Registration of International Trademarks under the Madrid Protocol (GR No.22/2018), effective June 6, 2018, which set the requirements for two categories of applications:

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) came into effect in Vietnam on January 14, 2019, with some of its provisions on intellectual property taking effect immediately. (Under the Vietnamese legal system, when the provisions of international treaties such as the CPTPP differ from national law, the international provisions will apply.)

On February 5, 2019, Notification of the Board of Special Cases (No. 7) B.E. 2562 (2019) was put into effect, establishing new conditions for intellectual property (IP) owners who wish to bring legal action before the Department of Special Investigation (DSI). The notification is intended to clearly separate the jurisdictions of the police and the DSI.

Last year, Indonesia’s Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DGIP) announced a six-month deadline for all patent holders to settle their unpaid annuities, with those who failed to meet the deadline facing potential refusal of any future applications that they might make. In a recent announcement, the DGIP extended that deadline by an additional six months—from February 16, 2019, to August 17, 2019.