Thailand's Department of Intellectual Property gears up for AEC

BANGKOK, May 3 (TNA) - The Department of Intellectual Property under the Thai Ministry of Commerce plans to improve its work and develop cooperation on intellectual property with neighboring countries, as part of Thailand's preparations for the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015. The department's director-general, Pajchima Thanasanti, said on Thursday, in the lead-up to the department's 21st anniversary, that her department will seriously promote intellectual property to become Thailand's effective trade instrument, through revamping its information technology (IT) system in order to improve its efficiency in the registration and protection of intellectual property. Pajchima revealed that her department will also establish a national anti-piracy center and develop experts with English-language skills to suit the single economic community of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and that her department will be developed into a Green Department as well, along with supporting other ASEAN member states’ preparations to adopt the Madrid Protocol by 2015 and implementing a project to exchange results of patent verification. On the same day, Thai Deputy Commerce Minister Siriwat Kachornprasat presided over the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on geographical indication standards between the Department of Intellectual Property, the National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards and the Thai Industrial Standards Institute, on the occasion of the Department of Intellectual Property's 20th anniversary, to ensure that Thailand meets international standards on geographical indication which is a marketing tool. Besides, the Department of Intellectual Property signed an agreement on intellectual property cooperation with the Office of the Vocational Education Commission, under which both parties will jointly develop Thailand's intellectual property commercially and exercise intellectual property rights, among other cooperation. The Thai Department of Intellectual Property also presented IP Champion 2012 awards to local business operators who succeed in developing intellectual property commercially. (TNA)