The Trademark Act of 1991 has
been amended and the principal changes are summarized below.
(1) The definition of a registrable
trademark has been broadened to include a combination of
colors represented in a special manner and three-dimensional
shapes, if distinctive.
(2) Marks which form a part of an
applicant's company name and do not include the legal status
of the company (e.g. Inc., Co. or Ltd.) may now be registered
in plain block letters. However, the full name of a company,
i.e. one which indicates its legal status, may only be
registered if it is shown in a stylized form and is not
descriptive of the goods.
(3) A trademark consisting of a
geographical indication will not be accepted for registration.
(4) A priority claim may be made by the
following:
a) nationals of countries which are
members of an international convention or treaty for the
protection of trademarks of which Thailand is also a member;
b) trademark owners who have business enterprises that
operate industrial or commercial enterprises or are
domiciled in countries which are members of an international
convention or treaty for the protection of trademarks of
which Thailand is also a member; and
c) proprietors of trademarks whose goods have appeared at an
international exhibition held in a country party to an
international convention or treaty for the protection of
trademarks of which Thailand is also a member, or an
international exhibition organized by a government agency or
state enterprise of such country.
(5) The filing date in Thailand will now
be considered the registration date, even for applications
filed with a priority claim. Before the law was amended, the
filing date of an application was replaced by the priority
date after the registration was granted.
(6) Additional grounds for cancelling
trademark registrations have been introduced. A cancellation
action may now be brought against an identical or confusingly
similar trademark registration for goods in the same or a
different class but of the same character.
(7) A Registrar or other competent
officers will now have the authority to enter and search
premises suspected of containing infringing goods and
confiscate them. They will also be empowered to stop, enter
and inspect vehicles of any person suspected of carrying
infringing goods, and arrest an offender without obtaining a
search warrant under specified circumstances.
