GENERAL COUNTRY INFORMATION
Thailand is located due north of Malaysia and is flanked by Laos and Cambodia to the east and Myanmar to the west. The country is divided into 76 provinces and 2 special districts of which Bangkok, its capital, is one of them. Its population numbers more than 65.9 million people. Last year¡¯s gross domestic product (purchasing power parity) estimate for Thailand comes at about US$553.4 billion with a per capita of US$8,500.

THAILAND PATENTS SYSTEM

HIGHLIGHTS

Legal Basis	Patent Act No. 2, B.E.2535(1992) as amended by Patent Act No.3, B.E.2542(1999) in force since September 1999. Industrial Designs (as above, under Patents)
Major international treaty signed	World Trade Organization (WTO), Paris Convention, Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)
PCT Information	Thailand has deposited their instruments of accession with WIPO on 24 September 2009, thus became the 142nd contracting state of the Patent Cooperation Treaty. The treaty will become effective in Thailand from 24 December 2009. Potential applicants should note that this implementation is not retrospective and will not apply to international applications with a date of filing before 24 December 2009.
PCT Updates	Other PCT information, such as national phase entry deadline, etc., are not available to date. Please check this page for further updates.
Costs of obtaining a patent	Please contact us at thailand@mirandah.com
Average time to obtain a patent	5 - 8 years
Official language for patent prosecution	Thai
Non-patentable subject matter	Naturally existing micro-organisms and their components, animals, plants and, animal and plant extracts Discoveries or scientific theories Mathematical formulae Methods of medical treatment and diagnostic methods Computer programs
Grace period for prior disclosure or sale	6 months before the Thailand Filing date (for experiments, R&D or disclosure to learned community)
Major prosecution events	Paris Convention entry  :  12 months Request for Examination :  60 months Payment of grant fees :  upon grant Renewals of patents :  every year
Extension of deadlines	90 days for certain formality events
Pharmaceutical Data Exclusivity Laws	Not available
Parallel Imports	Not an offence under the Act
Term of patent	20 years
Patent term extension	Not available
Restoration of lapsed patent	Available
Search and Examination	The Patent Office conducts its own Search and Examination but favours Search and Examination reports issued in prescribed countries such as US, UK, Australia, Japan as well as the prescribed regional European Patent Office
Other forms of patents (e.g. petty/innovation patents)	Petty and design patents
Useful links	www.mirandah.com www.ipthailand.org

ENFORCEMENT OF PATENTS

HIGHLIGHTS

Infringement offence	Civil and Criminal (in special cases)
Any specialized courts for IP	Yes
Outline of the enforcement steps	File a complaint with the police or the Intellectual Property and International Trade Court
Relief against groundless threats	Right to counter sue
Declaration of non-infringement	Available
Preliminary injunctions	Available, but difficult to obtain
Alternative dispute resolution	Not available for criminal cases but available for civil cases if the parties agree
Availability of damages and other relief for infringement	(i)  Injunction (ii) Damages

OTHER INFORMATION

Application and Grant Of Patent From 2000 to 2008

Year

Application

Granted

	Domestic	Foreign	Total	Domestic	Foreign	Total
2000	561	4488	5049	45	371	416
2001	534	4798	5332	58	738	796
2002	615	3874	4489	39	1063	1102
2003	802	4141	4943	56	950	1006
2004	819	4554	5373	57	659	716
2005	891	5449	6340	62	491	553
2006	1040	5221	6261	118	1003	1121
2007	945	5873	6818	118	830	948
2008	902	5839	6741	62	904	966
Total	7109	744237	51346	615	7009	7624

Disclaimer: The information provided above is intended to serve as a general guideline and is not intended as legal advice. The information is correct at the time of printing.