Patent Protection in Thailand
patents
patents
patents
What this briefing covers
Filing Statistics
- Invention, petty and design filings in 2025
- Japan's position among foreign applicants
- Ten-year trends, 2015–2025
The Thai Patent System in Practice
- The three rights compared at a glance
- Prosecution procedure for each right
- Statutory deadlines and appeal routes
The Draft Patent Act
- Legislative status and timetable
- What changes for each of the three rights
- PCT and Hague Agreement chapters
Filing Statistics
Invention Patents 2025
- 1QualcommUSA211
- 2JFE SteelJapan199
- 3Toyota MotorJapan197
- 4Nippon SteelJapan166
- 5Nokia TechnologiesFinland98
By technology group
- Electrical & digital is the largest group — 1,688 applications
- Japan holds its biggest share in Engineering: 552 of 1,026 (54%)
- Japan is also strong in Electrical (486), Chemistry & materials (371) and Chemical engineering (347)
- Pharma and biotech are dominated by non-Japanese filers — Japan ~12–13%
Ten-year trend
- Total filings stable at 7,500–8,400 per year; 2025 (8,353) is the highest in the decade
- Japan peaked in 2018 (3,523), easing to ~2,700 — still #1 by a wide margin (~32% of total)
- The USA fluctuates around 1,000–1,400 with no clear trend
- China is the story: 250 (2015) → 1,047 (2025), a 4× increase — closing in on the USA for #2
Petty Patents 2025
- Petty patents are primarily a Thai SME tool
- Foreign use is small — under 400 applications a year in total
- China leads foreign filers; Japan files only ~21 per year
Ten-year trend
Total filings more than doubled in a decade (2,201 → 4,891), driven almost entirely by Thai applicants. Foreign use remains tiny (<200/year): China has surged since 2022 (17 → 153) to become the top foreign filer, while Japan declined from 60 to ~21.
Design Patents 2025
- One third of design filings come from abroad — the highest share of the three rights
- Japan files 329 applications, ~15% of all foreign filings
- Behind China (599) and the USA (384)
Ten-year trend
Total design filings grew ~46% over the decade (4,461 → 6,508). Among foreign filers, Japan led until 2022 but has eased from its 2016 peak (594 → 329), while China surged (50 → 599) to become #1 and the USA doubled in 2025 (384).
The Thai Patent System
in Practice
Three rights at a glance
From filing to grant
Formal or substantive exam: file within 90 days (+90 and +30-day extensions on request). A missed deadline = application abandoned.
A third party may oppose within 90 days of publication → counterstatement within 90 days (or abandoned) → Director-General decision in 10–18 months → appeal to the Patent Board within 90 days.
E.g. lack of novelty — appeal to the Patent Board within 60 days.
Minimum ~2.5 years filing → grant; realistically 5–7 years without acceleration. PPH cuts this to ~1–2 years.
Registration first, examination if challenged
During formal examination: file within 90 days — no amendment filed = application abandoned.
Any interested party — or the applicant — may request substantive examination within 1 year of publication. Satisfactory → the petty patent remains valid. Not satisfactory → request to cancel → appeal to the IP&IT Court within 60 days; no appeal = petty patent cancelled.
Registration comes first and examination only if challenged — that is why grant takes only ~1–2 years.
From filing to registration
E.g. drawings, name, address: file within 90 days — no amendment filed = application abandoned.
A third party may oppose within 90 days of publication → counterstatement within 60 days (shorter than for invention patents) → Director-General decision in 10–18 months → appeal to the Patent Board within 90 days.
E.g. design not new — appeal to the Patent Board within 60 days.
The Draft Patent Act
Where is it now?
A complete rewrite: 88 → 171 sections — general provisions, 9 chapters, transitional provisions and a fee schedule.
Awaiting parliamentary proceedings — not yet law. No enactment date has been announced.
What changes for Invention Patents
Becomes two-stage: a first publication once 18 months have passed from filing, and a second after the application clears substantive examination
Must be filed within 3 years of the application date — replacing the current 5-years-from-publication rule
The 90-day window moves to the second publication stage — after examination and before registration
Formally recognized — can be filed at any time until the notice of registration is issued
Applicants may divide an application voluntarily, not only when ordered
Permitted, but limited to non-substantive matters
Filing: THB 500 → 3,500 (+THB 40 per page beyond 30). Substantive examination: THB 10,000 (+THB 2,000 per claim beyond 10)
Authorized for pharmaceutical patents during pandemics and drug shortages
What changes for Petty Patents
The filing fee now includes publication and registration — no separate payment steps later in the process.
A request for substantive examination can be filed up to 6 years from the filing date.
An application can be converted between petty patent and invention patent at any point before the notice of registration is issued.
What changes for Design Patents
Extended from 10 to 15 years
Preliminary and substantive review consolidated into a single step
Window shortened from 90 to 60 days
Now recognized, in line with the Hague framework
One application may cover several designs, as long as they stay within the scope of the principal design
Absolute standard — a design disclosed anywhere in the world before filing is no longer new
6 months, covering the applicant's own disclosure and disclosures resulting from unlawful acts
Publication can be postponed for up to 10 months from the filing date