Recent amendments to Thailand’s criminal law make it harder for convicted criminals who do not appear for sentencing to appeal their cases. Under the current law, defendants who are on the run are able to file higher court appeals through a lawyer. The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) has now closed this loophole, and the amendments are awaiting final signature to become effective. 

In Thailand, plant varieties are protected under the Plant Varieties Protection Act B.E. 2542 (1999) (Act), which is administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (Ministry). The Act aims to incentivize plant breeding and the conservation of plants and germplasm.The Act classifies plant varieties into four groups, including local domestic plant variety, wild plant variety, general domestic plant variety, and new plant variety. This article discusses how a new plant variety can be protected under the law.

Take a walk along Bogyoke Aung San Road in downtown Yangon, and you will see longyi-clad men and teenagers in school uniforms with thanaka-painted faces digging their fingers into golden pieces of fried chicken in Myanmar’s first KFC outlet. Across the street from KFC, patrons of Yakun Coffee & Toast, a popular Singaporean chain, can be seen devouring their kaya and butter toast as the sweet aroma of Hainanese coffee lingers in the afternoon air.

Last year’s amendments to the Thai Copyright Act gave copyright owners broader and more advanced tools to tackle copyright infringement in the digital age. Among these amendments, the one which has garnered the most attention is Section 32/3, which provides preliminary injunctive relief for copyright infringement on computer systems. This feature has been of particular interest to IP practitioners and scholars, who have attempted to determine how best to utilize this section in order to enforce against copyright infringement on the Internet.

Indonesia’s new Patent Law, which was enacted on August 26 of this year changes how annuity payments are calculated. Annuity payments are now due at the beginning of the protection period, in order to receive protection for the following period. This change from the past system, under which annuity payments were due at the end of each protection period, left patent owners with many questions about how their payments would be impacted under the new law.

The Indonesian Parliament approved amendments to Indonesia’s Trademark Law on October 27 this year. Indonesia’s amended Trademark Law will take effect on or before November 26, 2016, introducing a number of significant changes to the publication and substantive examination stages, among other things.

Food Regulations and Enforcement in Thailand, a chapter in the Reference Module in Food Science  book, published by Elsevier, provides an overview of food laws and enforcement mechanisms in Thailand.