Trademark registration in Thailand

Any individual or company, Thai or foreign. A foreign applicant without a place of business in Thailand must appoint a local agent with a power of attorney, and that power of attorney generally has to be notarised and legalised in the country where it is signed.

A straightforward mark that faces no objection and no opposition typically reaches registration in roughly twelve to eighteen months from filing. An office action or an opposition adds materially to that. Rights run from the filing date once registration is granted, so an early filing date is worth protecting even in a slow queue.

Always. The Department of Intellectual Property refuses marks that are identical or confusingly similar to earlier marks in related classes, and refusal loses both the fee and the filing date. A knock-out search across the relevant classes is cheap compared with refiling a rebranded mark.

Thailand uses the Nice classification of 45 classes covering goods and services. Protection is granted per class, and the specification of goods must be precise — broad claims covering an entire class heading are routinely objected to. Most businesses file in the two or three classes where they actually trade plus the class of their most likely counterfeit.

You receive an office action giving a deadline to respond, typically on distinctiveness, similarity to an earlier mark, or specification wording. A reasoned response with evidence of use, a disclaimer, or an amended specification resolves most objections. Missing the deadline abandons the application.

After examination the mark is published, and third parties have a statutory window to oppose. Opposition is adversarial, with pleadings and evidence on both sides and a decision that can be appealed to the Board of Trademarks and then to the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court.

Ten years from the filing date, renewable for further ten-year terms indefinitely. Renewal must be requested within the statutory window around expiry — a lapsed registration can be picked up by a competitor.

Yes. Thailand is a Madrid member, so an international registration can designate Thailand and a Thai application can be used as the basis for designating other members. The Thai office still examines the designation on national grounds, so a Madrid route does not avoid a local objection — it only simplifies the filing mechanics.