Thailand has made significant changes to its statutory interest rate framework for the first time in almost a century. Since 1925, the statutory interest rate codified in Thailand’s Civil and Commercial Code (the CCC) has remained at 7.5% per year. But with Covid-19 having an unprecedented impact on the Thai economy, the Thai Government, via emergency decree, has reduced the statutory rate. While the decree is largely aimed at providing relief to hard-hit SMEs and individual debtors, the amendments have broader implications for doing business in Thailand. Main Changes The new interest rate revisions are contained within the Emergency Decree Amending the Civil and Commercial Code B.E. 2564 (2021) (the Emergency Decree), which was published in the Government Gazette on April 10, 2021 and came into effect on April 11, 2021. The Emergency Decree amends Sections 7 and 224 of the CCC, which stated the previous statutory interest rate of 7.5% per year. The Emergency Decree makes three major changes. The first involves a reduction of the statutory interest rate from 7.5% per year to 3% per year in Section 7. The new 3% annual rate is subject to review every three years by the Ministry of Finance. The interest rate is subject to further change later by a royal decree. The second change concerns money debts under Section 224 of the CCC. The previous version of Section 224 stated, among other things, that a money debt based on a default bears interest of 7.5% per year. Under the Emergency Decree, the new actual statutory default interest rate is the statutory interest rate stated in Section 7 with an additional rate of 2% per year. The result is a 5% annual statutory default interest rate. Since the statutory default interest rate is based in part on the Section 7

Experts from Tilleke & Gibbins have authored the Vietnam chapters of the latest edition of the Practical Law Life Sciences Global Guide.

Lawyers from Tilleke & Gibbins’ intellectual property team have written the Vietnam chapter of Practical Law’s IP in Business Transactions Global Guide, a high-level comparative overview of intellectual property laws and regulations across 34 jurisdictions.

Background The Trademark Office of Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) is making significant, concrete progress in revising the trademark registrar’s Trademark Examination Manual, with the aim of bringing Thailand’s trademark examination standards into alignment with international standards for trademark examination. This comes on the heels of the DIP’s recent efforts to improve examination standards for patent applications by revising the form for patent office actions to include sufficient reasoning and clarifying details on each instruction (the DIP is also currently working to resolve the lengthy backlog in patent examination and registration by increasing the number of examiners and proposing amendments to patent and design law). New draft manual On 28 January 2021 the DIP unveiled the first draft of the updated Trademark Examination Manual in a webinar attended by trademark lawyers, practitioners and trademark owners. The new draft manual seeks to create increased consistency through the establishment of clear and fair criteria to be used in examining trademark applications. The proposed revisions are based on the study of trademark laws and subordinate legislation, decisions of the Board of Trademarks, judgments from Thailand’s Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court, and previous problems that have arisen in the course of examination. Key proposals Some of the most interesting draft revisions are summarised below. When determining the distinctiveness of a mark, there are five levels of distinctiveness (from highest to lowest): fanciful, arbitrary, suggestive, descriptive and generic. A mark consisting of geometric shapes or general designs (eg, infinite or repeated textile patterns) will not be registrable. There are clearer criteria for registering marks consisting of the names of individuals, the full names of juristic persons and trade names. In determining whether a mark is a geographical name, the mark will be considered based on the knowledge and perception of Thai