Although the Thai Trademark Act provides protection for passing off, filing a lawsuit to defend an IP owner’s unregistered rights can still pose certain challenges. This is especially true where two registered trademarks are different, but the product packaging designs of both marks are confusingly similar. In these circumstances, the court occasionally decides upon a mere comparison of the two marks and may determine that the similarities of their packaging designs are not likely to cause confusion among public consumers due to their dissimilarity.   

The Court of Appeal for Specialized Cases (Specialized Appeal Court) was established in October 2016 to review all appeals against the judgments of the five specialized first instance courts in Thailand, including the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court (IP&IT Court). Most, if not all, judges of the Specialized Appeal Court, who are responsible for reviewing IP-related appeals, have had experience working as judges at the IP&IT Court and can be expected to be well versed in IP law and practices.