Recently, the Cabinet passed a resolution that amends Thailand’s Trade Competition Act B.E. 2542 (1999). The draft amended law has since been submitted to the National Legislative Assembly for further consideration. Businesses should be aware of and prepare for the major changes ahead, as the newly proposed law may become effective at the end of this year.The Office of Thai Trade Competition Commission (OTCC) is the main enforcer of Thailand’s Trade Competition Act. Overall, the Act aims to regulate fair competition among business operators in the following key areas:

Presented in a Q&A format, the PLC Life Sciences Multi-jurisdictional Guide  provides a comprehensive overview of life sciences laws and regulations in jurisdictions around the world. Lawyers at Tilleke & Gibbins wrote the Vietnam chapter of the guide, which covers the following subjects in detail:

PLC Life Sciences Multi-jurisdictional Guide 2016/17  is a Q&A-style guide which provides an overview of the regulatory frameworks of the life sciences industries across multiple jurisdictions worldwide.

Changes to how Thailand handles well-known marks mean that rights holders will have to change their strategies and best practices to protect their marks.In Thailand, protection over a trademark is usually granted once a trademark is registered. A registrar will not grant the registration of a mark that is identical or similar to a prior-registered trademark, as it may lead to confusion among the public as to the owner or origin of the goods.

Vietnam’s new Law on Cyber-Information Security (LCIS) was passed on November 19, 2015, and it will take effect this year on July 1. This is the first comprehensive law ever issued in Vietnam on the security of “cyber-information,” which is information exchanged in a telecommunications or computer network environment.

In 2011, when Myanmar embarked on a series of political and economic reforms, there was a surge in demand for real estate. Demand quickly outpaced supply, resulting in an undersupply of quality office space and housing. By 2014, rental prices in Yangon’s prime areas had climbed to as high as USD 100 per square meter, rivaling those found in lower Manhattan and over three times those in prime areas of Bangkok.

Indonesia has set out, for the first time, regulations on the procedures to record license agreements for trademarks, patents, copyright, and industrial designs. Although there was previously a requirement to record license agreements, recordation was not actually possible in practice due to a lack of implementing regulations and guidelines.

In the August 2015 edition of Informed Counsel, we discussed Thailand’s Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot Program (PPH Pilot Program), in which the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) and the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) collaborated to accelerate the patent examination process of Thai applications based on prior Japanese applications.