On 5^th March 2018, the Department of Intellectual property of Thailand (“DIP”) fully launched its new e-filing system for registering trademarks, invention patents and design patents and also for recording copyrights.  This new e-filing system is the single sign-on system for four main types of intellectual property in one platform.  This system will not totally replace the traditional way of paper submission but it is optional as it will operate alongside traditional paper-filing in person.

In fact, online filing has been available in relation to trademark applications in Thailand for a few years but it has faced various problems in practice as it requires relevant office fee payments to be made with the bank within 24 hours and submission of hard copies of documents as filed online must be submitted in person within 15 days from the online filing date.  The system had also been quite unstable.  Therefore, the practitioners usually use the previous e-filing system only in urgent cases.  Thus, it could not be said that e-filing system for intellectual property registration had been fully implemented before.

Under the new e-filing system, a user is required to create an account with the DIP and submit supporting documents to prove identity and register for electronic signature to be used for filing applications online.

This new e-filing system no longer requires an applicant to submit hard copies of documents as filed online in person with the DIP again after filing online, except for certain documents of which the originals remain required to be submitted in person, e.g. an original certified copy of the foreign application for priority claim, an original registration certificate for assignment of a trademark, evidence of use to prove secondary meaning of a trademark, etc.   In the latter case, the documents must be submitted in person with the DIP within 15 days from the online filing date.

Payment of fees under this new e-filing system can be made via many methods.  Besides paying an official fee by traditional way of payment in cash or transfer of funds at the bank or through other payment service providers, this new system allows a user or applicant to pay an official fee via a credit card online and also allows online Internet banking.

This new system is aimed to allow faster and more convenient filing of intellectual property applications and to help the IP registration system of Thailand to be more in line with the national policy of digital economy and Thailand 4.0.