Thailand's Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) announced on its website on 30 September that it has linked the trade mark search system IP Search with the company registration data of the Department of Business Development (DBD): when searching a trade mark, the public and businesses can now immediately check the current status of the juristic person recorded as owner, as information to consider before a trade mark transaction or other disposal. According to the DIP press release issued on 29 September in the name of Director-General Oramon Sapthaweetham, the trade mark record in IP Search now displays an entry point for checking juristic-person status that links to the DBD DataWarehouse+, so the data comes directly from the authority responsible for company registration. Users can see at once when the owner is in a status such as dissolved with liquidation pending, dissolved with liquidation completed, or defunct and struck off.
DIP notes that where the owner is a juristic person its status changes over time, creating a risk that others use the company's trade mark or pass themselves off as the owner; the new function helps identify the status of the rights holder before a transaction or other step and reduces the risk of trade marks of dissolved or defunct companies being misused, and the service is available 24 hours a day free of charge, with the 1368 hotline for enquiries.
DIP places the measure within the policy of Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Suphajee Suthumpun of using technology and digital systems to cut procedures and make services more convenient for the public.
This is not a change in the law but a linking of registers, and it is highly practical for assignments, licences, due diligence and disputes: previously the trade mark register and the company register had to be consulted separately to judge whether the rights holder still existed, whereas one search now shows it, reducing the risk of a transaction with a dissolved or defunct company's mark proving void or worthless.
J&C recommends that companies involved in Thai trade mark assignments, licences or due diligence make this check standard: check the counterparty's status in IP Search before signing an assignment or licence; have documents of a company in liquidation signed by the liquidator and establish ownership documents where the company has ceased to exist; include in licences a duty to notify changes in the owner's status; check whether an opponent still exists before responding to a warning or opposition; and weigh non-use cancellation against marks held by dormant or struck-off companies.
Source: www.ipthailand.go.th
