The Thailand chapter of Practical Law Company’s recently published Agricultural Law Global Guide  was written by lawyers from Tilleke & Gibbins. The guide provides a comparative overview of agricultural law in 24 jurisdictions across six continents, and covers the following topics in an easy-to-follow Q&A format:

Vietnam’s IP enforcement system has seen great improvements over the last several years. In particular, the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has handled many complex disputes in the pharmaceutical sector related to patent infringement, unfair competition, and trademark infringement.

Vietnam, like many other countries in the world, has an open policy on the registration and use of its country code top-level domain name, “.vn”. Accordingly, any individual or organization, whether domestic or foreign, whether present in Vietnam or not, has the right to register and subsequently use domain names ending in “.vn”. With such an open policy, disputes over domain names will naturally arise, especially when unrelated applicants register names similar to, or containing, the protected marks and brands of IP rights holders.

The long-term growth forecast for Thailand’s insurance industry is quite positive, with increasing income, an ageing population, low market penetration rates, increased market liberalization in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), and supportive regulatory framework all expected to contribute to double-digit growth for the industry over the next few years.

Effective healthcare depends on innovation, and companies operating in the healthcare sector—including pharmaceutical and medical device producers and distributors—are usually eager to educate health professionals about their products and services so that they are up to date on the latest industry knowledge and skills. Often, this can involve providing sponsorships for health professionals to attend relevant events, such as seminars and workshops.

Under Vietnam’s Intellectual Property Law, three-dimensional trademarks are registrable, with the same criteria for protection as two-dimensional marks. However, a sense of confusion is inevitable when looking at the overall picture of 3D mark registration in Vietnam.The NOIP’s View on Inherent Distinctiveness

Multiple-class trademark applications became available in Thailand for the first time by virtue of the Thailand Trademark Act (No. 3) B.E. 2559, which amended the Thailand Trademark Act B.E. 2534, and which came into effect on July 28, 2016. The amended Trademark Act allows you, as a trademark owner, to file one application to cover goods and/or services in more than one international class. This provides an important new option, but there are still circumstances in which you may prefer to file separate single-class trademark applications.

The MARU Project tackles a vital problem in an innovative manner. The problem is severe flooding in the Mekong Delta, which poses a distinct risk to low-income residents whose homes are frequently damaged or lost due to rising waters. The solution is a low-cost, eco-friendly, floating house, built on a Y-shaped “cell” design that can connect to other cells to form a community. MARU envisions building these homes for low-income families in Vietnam, and also marketing them to eco-tourism companies.