Thailand finalizes new Trademark Examination Manual
Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property (“DIP”) released its finalized trade mark Examination Manual (“Examination Manual”) on January 17, 2022. The final Examination Manual is an improvement over the prior Manuals and Draft.
The Examination Manual gives examiners guidance for trade mark examination in areas where the Trademark Act leaves it up to them. Since January 17, 2022, all trade mark applications, including those filed prior to that date, have been examined using the new Examination Manual.
The final Examination Manual is an improvement over the prior Manuals and Draft.
The majority of the key themes in the Examination Manual are the same as in last year’s Draft Examination Manual (“Draft Manual”). Only a few small modifications have been made, largely to the examples supplied in the Manual. There is a list of the most significant enhancements:
- Five levels of distinctiveness formally recognised. From highest to lowest: fanciful marks, arbitrary marks, suggestive marks, descriptive marks, generic marks. Suggestive marks are explicitly stated as being . For example, GREYHOUND for ‘coach transportation services’ is merely suggestive as it requires secondary understanding that greyhounds are fast racing dogs, suggesting that the coach service is fast. Such marks are registrable.
- Marks consisting of a combination of Chinese characters are recognised as being inventive and registrable if the combination does not have a meaning.
- Combination of letters and numbers of 3 or more characters now recognised as inherently distinctive unless it is a common sequence e.g. 123, ABC.
For showing acquired distinctiveness, two or more years of online and social media advertising is regarded as “sufficient.” This indicates that intensive online advertising over a period of two to three years could be enough to establish that the mark has acquired a secondary meaning.
- Examiners may request applicants to disclaim exclusive rights to a non-distinctive part of the mark only if it is not the prominent part of the mark. The Examination Manual states that the “prominent part” of the mark should mean “proportionately larger so that it is the part recognised by the public or consumers”.
Despite the fact that the Examination Manual is presently in use, it is not legally enforceable and merely serves as a “guideline” for examiners when reviewing trade mark applications. The final Examination Manual is an improvement over the prior Manuals and Draft, albeit how examiners adopt these changes in practice remains to be seen.
*** Other Articles***
– You could visit here to see Procedure of Thailand Trademark Registration.
– You could visit here to check the required documents for filing trademark in Thailand here.
– You could read 06 Frequent Questions About Filing Trademark In Thailand here.
– You could visit here to see Power of Attorney of trademark in Thailand here.
– You could read 07 Legal Notes To Thailand Trademark Law You Need To Know here
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