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Published on January 26, 2008

Attempts to get Thailand to join the PCT bore fruit after more than three years when the National Legislative Assembly early this month approved applying for treaty membership. Thailand will also set up a receiving office to serve as an information and registration centre to assist both local and foreign inventors.

PCT membership will reduce the cost of registering individual patents 70 per cent from the normal rate, shorten the time taken to register a patent and provide protection via the PCT network, which now covers 138 member countries.

"Thai inventors will find it easier to register their inventions, because the cost of registration will be cut. They do not have to fly abroad to register patents in each country," Intellectual Property Department director-general Puangrat Asavapisit said yesterday.

For instance, the total cost of registering a patent in the United States, Germany, Australia, Japan or China is about Bt8.4 million for non-members but only Bt1

million to Bt2 million under the PCT network.

The PCT - which came into effect in 1970, was amended in 1979 and modified again in 1984 - establishes a mechanism for cooperation on filing, searching and examining applications for patents and for rendering special technical services.

The treaty makes it possible to seek patent protection in several countries simultaneously by filing an international patent application. Non-member countries must register copyrights in each country to which their products are exported, which entails the added expense of travelling to each country.

Thailand is the seventh Asean country to join the PCT, with only Cambodia, Burma and Brunei yet to enter the pact.

Puangrat said her department expected entering the PCT would increase the number of patents registered in the Kingdom and reduce violations of Thai copyrights abroad.

Department figures show that only 203 patents were registered in the country in 1996. That number jumped significantly to 1,040 in 2006. In the first 10 months of last year, 936 patents were registered.

The European Patent Office will send experts to Thailand, to provide a better understanding of the PCT system, while the department will encourage public understanding of the treaty through a series of seminars that start next month.

Asked about the possibility of foreign patents flooding the country under the PCT network, Puangrat insisted treaty membership would not create problems for Thailand. Foreign inventors usually register their patents in Thailand, whereas Thai inventors have so far had little opportunity to register their patents abroad, due to the high costs and complicated procedures.

The department predicts the increase in the number of foreign patent registrations in Thailand will be the usual 3-5 per cent annually despite PCT membership.

It also plans for Thailand to join the Madrid Protocol, to allow easier and cheaper registration of Thai-owned trademarks and prevent infringements abroad.

Puangrat called becoming a member of the Madrid Protocol the next step in increasing Thai-owned intellectual property in the international arena.

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

The Nation