Thailand has issued a series of regulations implementing the Employee Welfare Fund, which was established under the Labour Protection Act B.E. 2541 (1998) (LPA) but had remained unimplemented since the law’s enactment. The Employee Welfare Fund provides financial support to employees in cases such as termination of employment, death, and other circumstances as specified by the Employee Welfare Fund Committee. Under the LPA, employers with more than ten employees are required to register their employees with the Employee Welfare Fund if they do not offer employees a provident fund or comparable assistance for employment termination or death. With the new regulations detailed below, employers are now able to comply fully with this requirement. Implementation Timeline and Details On November 15, 2024, the Royal Decree Determining the Period for Starting the Collection of Savings and Contributions to the Employee Welfare Fund was officially enacted and published in the Government Gazette. According to this royal decree, contributions to the Employee Welfare Fund will commence on October 1, 2025. Two ministerial decrees followed on November 22, 2024—one setting the withholding and contribution rates, and the other outlining minimum levels of financial assistance due in cases of employment termination or death. The Ministerial Notification Specifying the Rate of Savings and Contributions stipulates the required rates for contributions to the Employee Welfare Fund and establishes a five-year initial period with reduced contribution rates. From October 1, 2025, to September 30, 2030, employers and employees are each required to contribute 0.25% of wages to the Employee Welfare Fund. Starting October 1, 2030, employers and employees will each be required to contribute 0.5% of wages. The Ministerial Notification Specifying Criteria and Procedures for Employers to Provide Assistance in Cases of Employment Termination or Death establishes the guidelines employers must follow when offering financial assistance to employees

On November 30, 2024, the Data Law was officially promulgated after an accelerated preparation process that began in February 2024. The Data Law is set to take effect on July 1, 2025. Having extraterritorial effect, the Data Law will impact both local and foreign individuals and enterprises. As noted in our previous legal update, the Data Law governs digital data, the National Data Center, the National General Database, digital data products and services, digital data management, and the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of agencies, organizations, and individuals related to digital data activities. This legal update provides an overview of the Data Law, with a deep focus on the key provisions likely to impact businesses operating or offering services in Vietnam. New Data Definition and Classification The Data Law broadly defines “digital data” as data about objects, phenomena, and events, which can include one or a combination of audio, images, numbers, text, or symbols represented in digital format (hereinafter referred to as “data”). This definition is very broad and potentially covers any information recorded or represented in digital forms, including personal and nonpersonal data (such as business data, transactional data, trade secrets, etc.). Data is further categorized into different types that can be used by public bodies. However, the rights and obligations associated with each type of data are not clearly addressed. The data classification criteria include: The nature of data sharing (shared data, private data, open data); The importance of data (core data, important data, and other data); Any other criteria to meet the requirements of data administration, processing, and protection, as determined by the data owner. While the Data Law requires private organizations to categorize data based on its level of importance, it still grants these organizations the right to categorize data based on other criteria. Cross-Border Data

With intellectual property playing an ever-increasing role in economic development, the need to harness, promote, and protect ASEAN innovation remains urgent as integration progresses. Among its objectives, the ASEAN Economic Community aims to transform the region into a hub of innovation and competitiveness and ensure that the region remains an active participant in the international IP community. With ASEAN member states increasing IP generation and further committing to global IP regimes, the region is increasingly looking toward sophisticated IP ownership and holding structures. IP Holding Companies ASEAN-based companies continue to centralize ownership of their IP assets in offshore holding and licensing vehicles—an approach multinational companies headquartered elsewhere have been using for a number of years. IP-intensive companies look to locate their IP portfolios in low-tax jurisdictions with strong IP registration and protection laws. The company then licenses the IP to operating companies in the group or to third-party licensees, franchisees, agents, distributors, and other partners in return for royalties or license fees. These special-purpose vehicles are typically referred to as IP holding companies. IP holding companies are popular because they can help corporations minimize tax, gain tax benefits or concessions, protect IP from bankruptcy or other claims against the parent company, and focus management attention on the IP portfolio as an income generator. Tax and IP Holding Companies Tax is the primary reason most companies park their IP in separate IP holding vehicles. Sometimes, companies choose to establish their IP holding company in a no-tax, low-tax, or preferred-tax jurisdiction close to their home country. The selected jurisdiction should also be a country with a large and well-established tax treaty network. Double taxation treaties are key considerations in jurisdiction shopping. If the IP assets need to be pledged as security for future borrowings or if they are to be included

Closing out the year, Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) has gifted green innovators with a chance to take a faster route for examining their patent and petty patent applications under the “Target Patent Fast-Track” program. This route prioritizes environmentally sustainable inventions, and significantly accelerates the preliminary and substantive examinations of selected applications at no additional official fee. The program was publicly announced on December 2, 2024, in the DIP Notification on the Expansion of Technological Fields under the Target Patent Fast-Track Program, which took effect on December 15, 2024. The expedited process is open to both Thai and foreign applicants, provided the requirements in the notification are met. Under the fast-track program, a first office action for qualifying applications can be expected within 6 months during the preliminary examination stage. These applications will also be issued a first office action within just 12 months in the substantive examination period after publication. The DIP begins accepting formal requests for selection to participate in the program from January 1, 2025, onward. Each applicant can submit only one application per fast-track patent program per month, as selected applications cannot belong to the same applicant. No more than 10 applications per month will be chosen to participate in the fast-track route, with the results being announced on the 5th of every following month. To be eligible for selection, applications must comply with all the fast-track requirements specified in the recent DIP notification, particularly: The patent or petty patent application must have been filed with the DIP for at least three months, or a substantive examination request has already been filed in the case of patent applications. Each application must contain no more than 10 claims throughout its participation in the program. The application must be electronically filed in Thailand first or through