Practical Law has published an updated online version of Patent Litigation in Thailand: Overview,  a Q&A-style guide that provides detailed overviews of courtroom and litigation procedure as it relates to patent dispute resolution. The Thailand overview is one of 33 such guides to jurisdictions worldwide, covering key practical issues related to the legal environment for patent litigation.

The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) was ratified by Vietnam’s National Assembly on June 8, 2020, under Resolution No. 102/2020/QH14 (Resolution 102), and will take effect on August 1, 2020. Among the IP provisions in the EVFTA (Chapter 12), some will be applied directly upon the effective date of the agreement, without any changes to the current domestic laws and regulations, while others will be applied via the amendment of the IP Law. Until the amended IP Law is issued (which is expected to occur in 2021), temporary provisions from the EVFTA will be directly applied.

The popularity of the franchise business model has been growing rapidly in mainland Southeast Asia in recent years, with some of the world’s top brands becoming common sights in the commercial districts and shopping malls of major regional cities in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The landscapes, world heritage sites, and hospitality of Cambodia have drawn increasing numbers of visitors in recent years, and at the beginning of 2020 the country was primed to see the continued growth of its tourism sector well into the new decade. Early projections estimated that Cambodia would welcome greater numbers of tourists despite the worldwide economic slowdown, and projected tourism rates were in keeping with the Tourism Ministry’s lofty goal of attracting 11 million tourists annually by 2025.

In June 2020, Thailand’s cabinet approved two sets of amendments to the Civil and Commercial Code (CCC) to update corporate governance and transactional rules and simplify the process of setting up and conducting businesses in Thailand. The draft amendments will be sent for parliamentary approval before being officially promulgated in the Government Gazette.First Set of Amendments

Thailand’s Customs Department has extended the deadline for business operators to pay all outstanding taxes and import duties at the Post-Clearance Audit Division of the Customs Department. The Customs Department has also extended the deadline for requesting review of import duty penalties, fines, and surcharges on outstanding import duty amounts until September 30, 2021—a significant postponement of the previous deadline of April 30, 2020.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Royal Government of Cambodia has introduced new measures to help mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on the country’s businesses and economy.

The rise of global digital economies has introduced uncertainties and exposed many loopholes in our existing tax system, with the most significant issues being the difficulties in collecting tax from those conducting digital activities without a physical presence in a jurisdiction. Thailand has long considered reforming its traditional tax system to better cover the digital economy and digital transactions, believing that foreign companies engaged in the same transactions in Thailand as local companies should also pay tax to the country.