Thailand remains on the United States Trade Representative’s Special 301 Report watchlist, despite praise from the U.S. government for the Thai government for its work in improving the country’s IP system, the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) has reported.

The report was issued on April 26.

The report praised Thailand for significant progress in improving protection and enforcement via its draft Copyright Act amendments, according to a report in the Bangkok Post, which attributed the comments to Vuttikrai Leewiraphan, the DIP director general. These in turn helped facilitate accession to the World Intellectual Property Organization Performances and Phonograms Treaty, the newspaper said.

Thailand also introduced the Patent Act Amendment to streamline procedures for joining the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, according to the report.

The report also praised the DIP and the police Economic Crime Suppression Division for their attempts at piracy suppression, especially in the physical market. However, it said the US government had raised concerns about pirated goods and geographical indication protection. Other rights violations, including unfair commercial use of media such as movies, were also included in the concerns, the newspaper reported.

Vuttikrai told the Post that IP laws in every dimension, including protection, suppression and enforcement, are among the government’s priorities. In addition to the legal amendments already mentioned, the DIP has been promoting an IP Work Plan. It held a briefing with the USTR on April 30 specifically to discuss the plan, in hopes of obtaining upgraded status in the Special 301 report, Vuttikrai told the newspaper.

“The DIP is grateful for the cooperation of every related sector in intellectual property protection,” he added.

In a December 2023 report in The Nation, Commerce Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said that he has instructed the DIP to crack down on the sale of fake branded products via online trading platforms.

He said online platforms have become popular among small businesses, but many use them to sell goods that violate property rights and thus damage Thailand’s image.

Phumtham, who doubles as deputy premier, said he has also told the department to educate small and medium-sized enterprises to patent their products to protect them from being copied, according to The Nation.

Vuttikrai said the department will have a memorandum of understanding signed between 30 copyright owners and three key online trading platforms to prevent piracy – Lazada, Shoppee and TikTok Shop.

Vuttikrai said the 30 businesses can inform the three platforms directly if they see their products copied and sold on the platforms. He added that the department is also seeking cooperation from Facebook to crack down on the violation of copyright.

The department told The Nation that the three platforms have been informed of 960 items that violate copyright and have removed the items after being informed. The items include imitation ink cartridges, sneakers, clothes, cosmetics and auto parts.

It is with this ongoing improvement in IP protection in Thailand that we turned to IP professionals in the region in order to understand better what clients need today. Asia IP asked a large number of professionals – mostly in-house counsel and corporate legal managers – what they were looking for from their legal service providers. From their answers, we have compiled our list of Thailand’s IP Experts, those lawyers who understand what their clients need and are able to provide them with the best practical advice.

It should come as no surprise that Thai powerhouse Tilleke & Gibbins leads the list of law firms represented on the list; the powerhouse law firm placed eight lawyers on our list, including Darani Vachanavuttivong and Alan Adcock, among others. Satyapon & Partners, led by Satyapon Sachdecha, placed five lawyers on our list, while Domnern Somgiat & Boonma and Rouse each had four on the list. Ananda Intellectual Property and ILCT each had three. Eighteen different firms, many of them newcomers to the Bangkok legal scene, each placed either one or two lawyers on the list.

Our survey includes only those lawyers working at law firms in Thailand. Most of the lawyers named to our list have multiple practice specialties. Many of them are litigators, while others concentrate on prosecution work or provide strategic advice.

All of them have something in common: they are Asia IP’s IP Experts for Thailand.

– Gregory Glass

Thailand’s IP Experts is based solely on independent editorial research conducted by Asia IP. As part of this project, we turned to thousands of in-house counsel in Asia and around the world, and asked them to nominate private-practice lawyers, including foreign legal consultants, advisers and counsel.

The final list reflects the nominations received combined with the input of the editorial team at Asia IP, which has nearly 50 years of collective experience in researching and understanding the legal market in Southeast Asia.

All private practice intellectual property lawyers working at law firms in Thailand were eligible for inclusion in the nomination process; there were no fees or any other requirements for inclusion in the process.

The names of our 50 IP Experts are published here. Each IP Expert was given the opportunity to include their biography and contact details in print and on our website, for which a fee was charged.