MONGKOLNAVIN LAW OFFICE

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DEPARTMENT

May-August 1999.................................................................Volume 3 No. 2

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

. IP & IT Court : Annual Report
. The New Trade Competition Act : Special Report
. Infringement News : 300,000 Compact Disks Seized
. Domain Name Registration ".th" : "Slow & Inflexible"
. Domain Name Disputes : The WIPO proposed Rules
. Asia-Pacific IP news : Australia Focus
. IP Newsletter Free Subscription : Join Us Now


Intellectual Property
Newsletter


The Central Intellectual Property
& International Trade Court: Annual Report

The establishment of the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court has given increased effectiveness to the enforcement of intellectual property rights. The Court has been operational since 1 December 1997. From 1 December 1997 to 31 July 1998, the Court has received 1207 cases concerning intellectual property. According to the Court's Report, the suppression activities against the illegitimate cassettes, videotapes, compact discs as well as laser discs and software have resulted in 267,512 pieces of infringing materials being seized from 1 January 1998 to 31 July 1998.

Infringement News 300.000 compact disks & tapes seized

The Department of Intellectual Property has recently conducted an impressive seizure of more than 300,000 compact disks at Pantip Plaza, one of the most notorious department store in Bangkok for counterfeited high tech products. Plastic product faked. According to Thai industry leaders fake plastic products labeled "Made in Thailand" are being made in several Asian countries and shipped to Africa and the Middle East. As a result, the value of Thai plastic product exports could fall this year by twenty percent.

Domain Name Registration in Thailand ".th": reported to be "Slow and Inflexible"

Domain name registration under ",th" is provided by a private organization, Th-Nic, which has overseen this task for several years. Th-Nic acts under assignment from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and the Asian Institute of Technology. Many Thai companies have already decided not to register under ".th" but under under ".com" from a foreign registrar. Why this choice ? First, they argue that applicants cannot obtain a receipt from the Domain Name Registrar after they pay their service fee (65 USD) and second, the service Th-Nic provides has been reported to be "slow and inflexible". In addition, applicants cannot get domain names under ".th" registered if they relate to their products or services. They can only use their organisation's name. Therefore, the Communication Authority of Thailand (CAT) has recently submitted a proposal to the IANA to ask for the right to administer of domain name registration in Thailand, replacing the private organisation, Th-Nic.

Domain Name Dispute: The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Proposed Rules

According to a recent report of the WIPO, only the owner of a registered brand name should be allowed to register that name as an Internet address. WIPO has also proposed the introduction of an Internet Court, which could force "cybersquatters" to turn over their domain names. What is the legal reality in countries such as Thailand, where 'cybersquatters' have been identified from registering domain names with well known commercial or brand names. The company name or brand owner could take a criminal action before the Thai Intellectual Property and International Trade Court based on section 420 of the Criminal Code against the "cybersquatter". This section prohibits the use of any commercial name without the authorization of its owner. There are two conditions : the domain name shall be registered in Thailand and used for commercial or profit purposes.

IP in Pacific Rim : Proposed Amendments to the Copyright Law of Australia

In every newsletter of our IP Newsletter we review the law of Copyright, Trademark and/or Patent of a neighboring country of Thailand. In this issue we review the proposed amendments to the Copyright Law of Australia.
The Copyright Amendment (Computer Programs) Bill of 1999 proposes a new set of defences permitting copying of software for certain purposes such as : - study of the concepts underlying a computer program and its functions; - the making of interoperable products; - the correction of errors; - testing security of the software, and correcting any flaw in that regard. There is no proposal for any obligation on the copier to first request the information required before performing any of these permissible acts and the copyright owner could not exclude these rights by any agreement.


About Mongkolnavin Law Office

Mongkolnavin Law Office was established in 1971. We have over 30 lawyers with professionally qualified specialists in all fields of law. The firm provides the following services in Copyright, Designs, Patents and Trade Marks in Thailand and internationally.


Pre-registration advice and searching Preparation, lodgment and prosecution of applications - Oppositions - Assignments and licenses - Renewals - Enforcement and Investigation - Advice on exploitation of rights and valuation - Competition law - Computer law - Infringement avoidance and defense - Watching services - Intellectual property audits - Agency, franchising and distributorship agreements
This newsletter is meant to provide a useful summary of information only and should not be relied upon as professional advice. For further information on any article or for advice, please contact Fabrice Mattei : 10 -12 Sukhumvit Soi 5, Bangkok 10110, THAILAND, Tel. (66-2) 255 4015, Fax (66-2) 2535529, Email: mattei_001@hotmail.com
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Copyright © Fabrice Mattei 1999


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