Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have grown rapidly in Thailand over the past ten years, creating millions of jobs and contributing to the Kingdom’s steady economic growth. According to the 2015 annual report of the Office of SMEs Promotion (OSMEP), there were approximately 2.7 million SMEs at the end of 2015, employing around 10 million people, particularly in the tourism, construction, and wholesale sectors.

It has become common practice for companies to sell and license out patents, and even use patents as collateral, in order to secure loans from financial institutions or attract capital from investors. As a result, patent valuation has been thrust into the spotlight, challenging potential buyers of patents and lenders. This article discusses what buyers of patents should consider, and what lenders should take into account when providing loans with patents used as collateral.

With a population of over 90 million, fast-paced economic growth, and an increasing standard of living, Vietnam has become a market with great potential for original brand name drugs. These drugs are marketed through numerous channels, with drug tenders called by health facilities being one of the most prominent and profitable.

On February 4, 2016, Vietnam and 11 other countries signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, the United States, Vietnam, and Singapore—countries which represent 36 percent of global GDP and more than 25 percent of world trade.

The effective protection of pharmaceutical patents has always been very important in national systems of intellectual property law. While effectiveness can be measured in many ways, any effective system must include a transparent and swift mechanism of legal enforcement with a clear link between the sanctioning of IP infringements and the elimination of infringing products from the market.

On May 15, 2016, shortly before the new Law on Pharmacy was adopted, the Vietnamese government issued Decree No. 36/2016/ND-CP on the management of medical devices (Decree 36). This decree took effect on July 1, bringing medical devices under uniform management. Previously, there were two separate systems of legislation—one for medical devices manufactured domestically and the other for imported medical devices.

The “Catch-all” Policy in ThailandIn many countries, it is mandatory for site operators to have a privacy policy in place. Catch-all privacy policies, whereby operators may collect, use, and share a wide range of users’ personal information, are widely used by site operators. They are designed to obtain broad agreement from users in respect to processing any personal data that is collected.