Thai patent amendments

Thailand has been debating amendments to its Patent Act for many years. The Department of Intellectual Property has now said that the amendments are going ahead.

Their chief goals are to reduce patent pendency (a serious problem in Thailand especially for chemical and pharma patents), to improve the availability of petty patents and to make sure that Thai public health is protected through the WTO TRIPS protocol relating to compulsory licensing. There is also a proposal to accede to the Hague Agreement for designs, which is an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) goal for a number of ASEAN countries.  Thailand appears to be keen to find ways to lead in IP matters in the AEC.