IP statistics in Thailand 2010
During the government fiscal year October 2009 to September 2010, the Thai Trademark Office received 36,926 applications and granted registrations to 22,551, while the Patent Office received 6,733 patent applications and 1,369 petty patent applications. The Patent Office granted registrations to 2,131 patents and 565 petty patents. Most patent applications were filed by foreign applicants, while the petty patents were filed mainly by Thai applicants.
Between January 1, 2010 and December 19, 2010, the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court (IPIT Court) accepted 3,285 new criminal cases on trademarks, while only 24 new civil trademark cases were filed. New patent cases decreased in number. Only eight civil cases on patents were filed (compared with the 11 cases pending from 2009) and six new criminal cases were filed, though there were 10 pending cases carried forward from 2009.
“According to the Department of Intellectual Property, 2010 enforcement actions decreased substantially from 2009. As a result, the Thai government expects the US Trade Representative to drop Thailand from the priority watch list of the United States.”
Nineteen civil copyright cases were filed with the IPIT Court in 2010, with the same number carried over from 2009. But there were 1,662 new criminal copyright cases, compared with 287 cases carried over from 2009.
These new cases are mainly related to the manufacture and sale of pirated goods. From October 2009 to September 2010, the Customs Department enforced border measures in 759 cases, resulting in the seizure of 628,803 items of trademark and copyright infringing goods, worth over Thb120 million ($3.9 million).
The Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) reported that from January to December 2010, combined enforcement actions by the police and customs officials against IP infringers numbered 3,445 cases and there were seizures of 3,769,482 pirated goods.
These were divided into 1,720 copyright infringement cases and 1,717 trademark infringement cases. Another case concerned patent infringement, and 173 infringing products were seized. The remaining seven actions concerned motion pictures and audio-visual legislation.
According to DIP, 2010 enforcement actions decreased substantially from 2009. As a result, the Thai government expects the US Trade Representative to drop Thailand from the priority watch list of the United States.
