Intellectual property · Thailand
Trademark registration in Thailand
Thailand is first-to-file, and its examiner refuses marks other countries wave through. We search, assess registrability honestly, file with the DIP, draft for the strictest standards in the region, and watch the register so the mark stays yours.
Why register
What a registered mark gets you in Thailand
Thailand is first-to-file: ownership goes to whoever registers, not whoever used the name first, so the filing date decides everything. Here is what the certificate gives you once it's yours.
The exclusive right to your name
Registration gives you the exclusive right to use the mark for your registered goods and services across Thailand, and the legal standing to stop anyone else using it or anything confusingly close: competitors, copycats, and the distributor who decides the brand should be his.
The enforcement toolkit
Customs recordation against counterfeit shipments, raids with the economic police, and takedowns on Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop all run on the certificate. With it, you are enforcing. Without it, you are writing letters nobody must answer.
An asset, not just a defense
A registered mark can be licensed to your distributor, franchised, or sold outright, and it's what acquirers and investors look for when they price your Thai business. With filing fees from THB 1,000 per item for ten years of protection, renewable forever, it's the cheapest asset you'll ever put on the balance sheet.
What can be registered
Almost anything that identifies you, if it's distinctive.
A registrable mark identifies your business rather than describing the product. Generic and purely descriptive terms are refused, and so are marks confusingly similar to existing registrations in your classes.
Word marksBrand names, company names, taglines, and letter or number marks, the most common filing.
Logos & devicesVisual symbols and graphic elements, registered as you use them.
Combined marksWords and graphics together, protecting the lock-up as a whole.
Shapes & 3D marksThe form of a product or its packaging, provided the shape is not functional.
Color combinationsGroups of colors presented in a distinctive way; a single color on its own is not registrable in Thailand.
Sound marksRegistrable in Thailand since the 2017 amendments, where the sound is distinctive and can be represented.
Every application names the goods and services it covers, grouped under the Nice Classification's 45 classes, and Thailand prices by the item: THB 1,000 per item of goods at filing, flattening to THB 9,000 per class at six items or more. That makes the specification a budgeting exercise as well as a legal one, and drafting it from the DIP's pre-approved wording list keeps both the cost and the examiner predictable. Multi-class filings are allowed.
The process
How registration works
Five stages with the DIP, with the examination before publication and the strictest standards in the region applied during it. Plan twelve to eighteen months from filing to certificate when nothing is contested; the fast track can put a first answer in your hands around month six.
1
Search and registrability checkDays
We search the DIP's records and the Madrid designations for identical and confusingly similar marks, and we assess the mark against Thai practice, because the DIP refuses descriptive, laudatory, and thinly distinctive marks that other offices accept. If the honest answer is that your mark will struggle here, you hear it now, with options, rather than a year in.
2
Filing, with the formalities done rightDays
Foreign applicants file through a Thai agent under a power of attorney notarized in your home country, submitted with the application or within 90 days at a surcharge. Foreign-word marks include their Thai transliteration and meaning, and the goods are specified from the DIP's standard wording wherever possible, which keeps the examiner predictable and the fast track open.
3
Examination6–12 months
The registrar examines formality and substance together: distinctiveness, conflicts with earlier marks, and the prohibited categories. Office actions are routine here, and so are disclaimers, where the registrar requires you to disclaim an unregistrable element of the mark; the registration survives, with its monopoly drawn more precisely. Applications meeting the fast-track criteria (limited items, standard wording) see a first result in around six months.
4
Publication and opposition60 days
The approved mark is published in the weekly Trademark Gazette, opening a 60-day window for oppositions. If one lands, you have 60 days to file a counter-statement, both sides submit evidence, and the registrar decides; a contested case adds six to twelve months. Most applications pass through quietly, and we watch the window either way.
5
Registration fee and certificateWithin 60 days
The DIP issues a notice to pay the registration fee (THB 600 per item, flat THB 5,400 per class at six items or more), and the deadline is real: 60 days from the notice, or the application is abandoned at the last step. We pay it the week it arrives. The certificate follows, ten years of protection from the filing date, renewable indefinitely. What keeps it alive from here is worth reading twice.
The checklist
Key requirements for trademark registration in Thailand
The documents and details the DIP needs before the application can be filed. The list is short, with one Thai particular: the power of attorney is notarized.
- A clear representation of the mark. The logo file in high resolution, or the word mark exactly as you use it; foreign words travel with their Thai transliteration and meaning.
- What it covers. Your products or services, described in your own words; we map them to the Nice classes and the DIP's standard wording, watching the per-item fee line.
- Applicant details. The full legal name and address of the person or company that will own the mark, with a company certificate where the applicant is corporate.
- A notarized power of attorney. Thailand is stricter than its neighbors here: the POA appointing your Thai agent is notarized in your home country, and filed with the application or within 90 days at a surcharge. We send you the form ready to sign.
- Priority documents, only if applicable. A certified copy where you're claiming priority from an application filed abroad within the last six months; it can follow the filing by 60 days.
Keeping it alive
No use declarations here. Registrations still die in four ways
Thailand doesn't require the periodic use filings the Philippines does, which lulls owners into treating the certificate as permanent. It isn't, and the failure modes are predictable.
Missed renewalsProtection runs ten years from the filing date. Renewal files within the three months before expiry, with a six-month grace period after at a surcharge. A lapse opens a gap, and in a first-to-file system, gaps get filed into.
Three years of non-useA mark unused in commerce for three years can be canceled on petition to the Trademark Board by anyone with an interest. Keeping dated evidence of use (sales, listings, packaging, campaigns) is cheap insurance against a claim that otherwise turns into archaeology.
Unwatched publicationsThe gazette publishes weekly and the opposition window is 60 days, the shortest in the region. If nobody is watching it for you, a confusingly similar mark passes the examiner once and registers; stopping it afterwards means Board petitions instead of a two-page opposition.
Stale recordsAssignments, name changes, and address changes recorded with the DIP keep the certificate enforceable, the renewals smooth, and the customs recordation valid, since those systems check the register, not your letterhead.
Our service builds all four into the engagement: the renewal calendared a decade out, use evidence kept with the file, a weekly watch on the gazette, and the register kept current as your company changes.
What it costs
The DIP prices by item: THB 1,000 per item of goods at filing (flat THB 9,000 per class at six items or more), and THB 600 per item at registration (flat THB 5,400). A focused single-class filing typically lands a few thousand baht in official fees end to end. Emerhub's fee for the search, registrability assessment, filing, and prosecution is quoted on request per class, with office actions, oppositions, and renewals quoted as they arise.
Why Emerhub
Filed by the team that's already here.
Already on the ground
The same Bangkok team that handles incorporations, Thai FDA registrations, and import licensing files your trademark. Most marks ride alongside a market entry, and the timing between the two is part of the advice.
A straight answer before you spend
Thailand refuses more marks than any of its neighbors, so this matters more here: if the search or the registrability check shows your mark will struggle, we tell you before you pay filing fees, with options: adjust the mark, add distinctive elements, or challenge what's blocking you.
We keep it alive
Many providers file and disappear. Thai registrations are won and lost at the renewal, the three-year use rule, the 60-day opposition window, and the 60-day registration fee notice, so ours come with the calendar and the watch built in.
Common questions
Thailand trademark FAQs
Specific questions about registering and keeping a mark in Thailand.
Does registering my company protect my brand name?
No. The company name registered with the DBD only stops someone from registering an identical company name; it gives no trademark rights. Your brand needs its own DIP registration, and until it has one, anyone can file for it, including your distributor.
How long does registration take?
Twelve to eighteen months from filing to certificate when nothing is contested: examination in six to twelve months, the 60-day publication window, then the registration fee and certificate. The DIP's fast track delivers a first examination result in around six months for applications with limited items and standard-list wording, which is one reason we draft specifications that way by default. Protection runs from the filing date once registered.
What does it cost?
Thailand prices per item rather than per class: THB 1,000 per item of goods at filing, flat THB 9,000 per class at six items or more, then THB 600 per item (flat THB 5,400) at registration. Our fee covers the search, the registrability assessment, the filing, and the prosecution to certificate, quoted per class; contested matters are quoted as they arise. Schedule a call with your mark and product list and we'll give you the exact figure.
Someone already registered my brand. What can I do?
It depends where their filing stands. If it's within the 60-day publication window, we oppose. If it's registered, the routes are a better-right cancellation (within five years of the registration), a non-use cancellation once the mark has sat unused for three years, or a bad-faith challenge through the Board and the IP&IT Court. Negotiated purchase and coexistence are also real options, and sometimes the cheapest ones. We assess which fits before you spend on any of them.
Do I need a local agent to register?
Foreign applicants without a presence in Thailand file through a Thai agent, appointed by a power of attorney notarized in your home country, Thailand's one piece of formality its neighbors skip. We send the POA ready to sign, file it with the application (or within the 90-day window where timing is tight), and act as the local address so official notices reach people who act on them inside the deadlines.
Why does Thailand refuse so many marks?
The DIP applies distinctiveness standards more strictly than most offices: descriptive and laudatory words, common surnames, geographic names, and thin stylizations are refused here even where they registered elsewhere. The practical answers are an honest registrability check before filing, distinctive elements added where the core mark is weak, and disclaimers used deliberately, where you give up the unregistrable element and keep the monopoly on the rest.
What happens if someone opposes my application?
They have 60 days from publication. You then have 60 days to file a counter-statement, both sides submit evidence, and the registrar decides, with appeals running to the Trademark Board and the IP&IT Court. A contested case adds six to twelve months. We prepare the defense and tell you honestly when a coexistence deal is the better outcome.
Do I have to prove I'm using the mark?
There are no periodic use declarations in Thailand. The use rule bites differently: a mark unused for three years can be canceled on petition to the Trademark Board, so the protection is only as strong as your evidence of use. We keep dated proof (sales records, listings, packaging, campaigns) with the file, so a cancellation claim meets a wall instead of a gap.
Can I use the Madrid System instead of filing locally?
Yes; Thailand joined the Madrid Protocol in 2017, so you can designate it in an international application. The DIP examines the designation under the same rules, including its strict distinctiveness standards, and a provisional refusal still needs a Thai agent to answer it. For a Thailand-only filing, the national route is usually more controllable; for a multi-country program, Madrid with local support for the refusals works well.
How does renewal work?
The registration renews every ten years, counted from the filing date. The renewal files within the three months before expiry, with a six-month grace period after it at a surcharge; miss both and the mark lapses, and in a first-to-file system someone may be waiting for exactly that. We calendar yours the day the certificate issues.
Protecting a brand in Thailand?
Talk to our Bangkok team
A free, no-obligation consultation: thirty minutes with our Bangkok team to check your mark, assess its registrability honestly, and map the filing, including what to do if someone got there first.
Emailthailand@emerhub.com
Phone / WhatsApp+62 811 1053 9667
OfficeUnited Business Center II
591 Sukhumvit 33, Watthana
Bangkok 10110
591 Sukhumvit 33, Watthana
Bangkok 10110