Trademark · Thailand
In Thailand, your brand goes
to whoever files first.
Not whoever used it first. Under the Trademark Act B.E. 2534 (1991), a competitor, a former distributor, even a stranger can register the name you have been trading under, and the law starts from their side of the table. A proper clearance search and an early filing are the protection. We do both, and we file.
Clearance opinions and filings are a lawyer's paid work, scoped before they start.
The problem
A clean online search
is not a clearance.
Anyone can search the register in ten minutes, and you should. But a clean self-search is encouraging, not clearance: the part that protects you is the confusing-similarity read, the sound-alikes and look-alikes, the Thai transliterations, and the cross-class conflicts. Get that wrong and you pay government fees to find out the hard way, twelve months later.
A thin search is worse than none:
it hands you false confidence. A real clearance discloses its method, screens your mark for distinctiveness and prohibited grounds, searches the mark as you will actually file it, and hands back a filing-ready specification.
The free guide
Protect Your Brand in Thailand
The SME and startup guide to Thai trademarks, in plain English: what a trademark protects, why first-to-file changes everything, how to pick a name that can actually be registered, the five-point clearance standard, the government-fee cliff nobody warns you about, the filing journey step by step, and how to take your brand international.
Check your inbox — we've just emailed you the guide (give it a minute, and peek in spam if it's not there). If there's a name or logo you're about to launch, just reply and tell us about it.
The guide is general information, not legal advice. Clearance, opinions and filings are a lawyer's paid work.
What's covered
From clearance
to a brand you can defend.
The guide shows you where the traps are. Here's what we do when it's time to protect the mark.
Clearance search
A signed clearance to our five-point standard: method disclosed, current DIP catalogues, distinctiveness and prohibited-grounds screened, the mark searched as filed, and a filing-ready specification built around the fee schedule.
Registration & filing
Word mark and logo filed as the right assets, in the right classes under the Thai DIP's classification, with the specification drawn from the DIP catalogue. We run the application through examination, amendment and disclaimer orders to registration, and we watch every deadline.
Oppositions & enforcement
Oppositions and counter-statements, appeals to the Board of Trademarks, cancellation actions, Customs recordal, cease-and-desist and infringement disputes in the IP&IT Court. When someone trades on your mark we act; when someone claims you trade on theirs we defend.
International protection
Paris priority within the six-month window, and one application to 100+ markets through the Madrid Protocol, based on your Thai mark. We plan the route so the base filing does not become a liability in the first five years.
Who's behind it
A Thai trademark lawyer
whose clearances are signed.
CorpJurist is run by a Thai-licensed lawyer with 14 years of practice. Trademark work is a core practice: clearance, filing, prosecution, oppositions, enforcement and portfolio management handled by the lawyer, not passed to a filing clerk. Our clearance reports are signed, because a clearance you can't audit is a clearance you can't rely on.
Plans
Scoped work,
with the price clear before it starts.
Clearance opinions, filings, oppositions and portfolio work are fixed-scope, quoted before they start. Government fees are the DIP's published charges; our fee is separate and agreed up front.
FAQ
Common questions
I used the name first. Doesn't that make it mine?
In Thailand, mostly no. Trademark rights go to whoever registers first, not whoever used the name first (Section 20). Years of use, marketing spend and loyal customers do not move you up the queue. If the name matters to your business, filing early is the protection.
Why not just run a free online search myself?
You can, and it's a good first pass to kill a doomed name early. But knowing what the results mean is the job: whether a mark is confusingly similar in look, sound or meaning, whether it clashes across classes, and whether it would be refused as descriptive anyway. That judgment is what a clearance buys.
How long does registration take, and what does it cost?
Plan on a year or more from filing to certificate in a smooth case, longer if objections or an opposition arise. Government fees are published by the DIP and depend on how many classes and items you file; our professional fee is quoted before we start. The guide above explains the fee structure, including the six-item cost cliff.
Can you protect my brand outside Thailand?
Yes. A Thai registration protects you in Thailand only. We coordinate international protection through Paris priority and the Madrid Protocol, so your filings expand with your markets.
Have a name or logo you are about to launch?
Tell us about the mark. We'll tell you honestly what we see: the class strategy, the obvious conflicts, and what to do first.
Thanks. A lawyer will be in touch.