Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property is ramping up its efforts to tackle IP violations nationwide, the National News Bureau of Thailand (NNT) has announced.

The move, NNT says, is part of an overall effort by the country to promote a more secure trade and investment environment.

The efforts, should all go according to plan, are designed to both shield consumers from counterfeit goods, but also to remind businesses of the importance of selling legitimate ones. DIP director-general Vuttikrai Leewiraphan, speaking to business owners, reminded them that the government is committed to safeguarding intellectual property rights and raising awareness among businesses.

The DIP will work with both public and private entities, including the Royal Thai Police’s economic crime suppression division, to try to slow the production and sale of fake products. The program targets some of the country’s largest production and retail centres, including the supply chain.

Between January and April 2023, the task force tackled 119 cases of intellectual property infringements, confiscating over 570,000 counterfeit items in the process. The penalties for such violations can be severe and include imprisonment and hefty fines, NNT says. The DIP is encouraging members of the public to notify it of any suspected IP infringements – and has set up a dedicated telephone hotline, 1368 – for the public to use.

It is with this ongoing interest in IP laws 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, placing ; the powerhouse law firm placed 10 lawyers on our list, including Darani Vachanavuttivong and Aland 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. Anand Intellectual Property, Baker McKenzie and ILCT each had three. Fourteen different firms, many of them newcomers to the Bangkok legal scene, each placed one lawyer 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 more than 45 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.