Problems relating to Trade and Investment on Thailand

 
17. Implementation of intellectual property rights ("IPRs")
Issue
Issue details
Requests
Reference
(1) Non-accession to IPR Protection Treaties - GOT drags its feet in acceding to IPR Protection Treaties (PCT Patent Cooperation Treaty, Madrid Protocol, etc.).
  (Action)
- In 2008, Thailand acceded to The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
- In December 2009, Thailand acceded to The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
- The Parliament House of Thailand has already approved Thai's accession to Madrid Protocol, pending amendment of Trademark Law.
- Under Yingluck Administration, the Trademark Amendment Bill submitted to the National Assembly got aborted by the political turmoil.
(2) Unspecified World Publicly Known and Used Provisions - Thai Patent Act stipulates as requirement for novelty as not domestically publicly known and not domestically publicly used prior to the filing of a patent application. For this reason, the problems exist that the patent is issued to the invention, regardless of the fact that it is publicly known outside Thailand. - The adoption has become a global standard of the notion of world public knowledge and world public use (WPK and WPU), also in PRC recently. It is requested that GOT considers adoption of WPK and WPU. - Thai Patent Act, Articles 5 and 6.
(3) Disallowed Application for Voluntary Divisional Patents - Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) allows filing of divisional patent application, only when the examiner determines that the application involves plural distinct inventions, foreclosing the applicant's voluntary divisional applications. - It is requested that DIP:
-- accepts applicant's filing voluntary application for divisional patents, and
-- allows applicant's filing voluntary application during both denial examination and patent examination periods.		 - Patent Act, Article 26
(4) Inadequate Provisions concerning the Period to file a Request for Laying Open of an Application - There is no clear definition for the laying open period of the application (LOPA), while the examination request period of application (ERPA) is defined as 5-years from the publication date of the laying open of the application. It makes it difficult to ascertain ERPA after filing of IPRs application. - In most countries, LOPA is provided into rules, while ERPA falls on the date of filing application. It is requested that GOT gets the rules amended so that it clearly defines LOPA and makes ERPA the date of filing application. - Patent Act, Article 29
(5) Insufficient Clampdown upon Counterfeits - Piracy is rampant not just on hardware but also on software such as movie, music and game.
- GOT has hardly done anything about counterfeit goods.		 - It is requested that GOT:
-- tightens its control on infringing goods at the point of sale, factory and Customs at border enforcement
-- not just on hardware but on software such as movie, music and game at the point of sale, factory, and
-- penalize such conducts.
  (Action)
- Imports and exports of fake brand products are prohibited.
- Patent legislation was amended in 1999 to comply with the TRIPS Agreement.
- In June 2000, The Trademark Act was amended to comply with the TRIPS Agreement.
- Responding to international pressure, the Thai Ministry of Commerce is aggressively removing the violating products from the market place.
- In April 2002, Trade Secret Act was promulgated.
- As of 2003, GOT promulgated intellectual property rights laws (namely, Patent Act, Copyright Act, Semiconductor Protection Act, Trade Secret Act, and Plant Variety Protection Act) and has acceded to international treaties, such as, TRIPS, WIPO and Berne Convention.
- According to the joint research conducted in January 2003 by Japanese Chamber of Commerce, Bangkok ("JTC") and JETRO Bangkok, trademark represented 71.8%, while industrial design right represented 60.4% of all so called "dead copy" infringements.
- On 1 January 2005, "The 2005 CD Production Act" was promulgated to control CD production. Under the Act, CD manufacturers must file to the authority a report (inclusive of the ownership of machinery & equipment and the volume of materials used for production).
- Department of Intellectual Property, MOC plans to introduce during 2006 an electronic filing system to cut down the time required for registration of IPR.
- On 3rd December 2006, MOC announced Department of Intellectual Property Strategy for 2006-2010 that includes among others the following:
-- Preparation of IP Law Reform Plan
-- Development of Electronic System for IP Registration
-- Preparation of the requisite steps for ratification of several international agreements such as Paris Convention, Patent Cooperation Treaty and Madrid Protocol.
- On 25 January 2007, Ministry of Public Health announced that it would invoke the right to issue compulsory licenses for two types of drugs for aids and heart-disease patented by overseas' industry and authorised own-production without licensing agreement.
- USTR's "2007 Special 301 Report" moved up Thailand from "Watch List" to "Priority Watch List", in light of GOT's invocation of compulsory execution on medication drugs in which GOT owns certain patent rights, and insufficient clampdown on pirate editions and counterfeits. Thailand remained on the "Priority Watch List" in the "2008 Special 301 Report". Furthermore, in .the "2011 Special 301 Report", Thailand continued to stay on the "Priority Watch List", because Thailand has not enacted amendments to the Copyright Act that, among other things, would implement the WIPO Internet Treaties, has failed to make substantial progress on several key pieces of legislation that remain pending, including legislation to address landlord liability, and unauthorized camcording of motion pictures in theaters, as well as legislation to provide Thai Customs officials with the authority to seize suspect goods, etc.
- National IPRs Centre for Enforcement (NICE) started up 6-Working Groups, including Research and Regulatory Working Groups aimed at strengthening clampdown on the IPRs infringements.

<<BACK