Intellectual Property Protection for Animals in Thailand

Abstract

The Thai government endeavoured to introduce a sui generis system for protecting new animal breeds. If the existing Thai intellectual property laws provide a sufficient level of protection for animals and animal breeds to meet Thai government policy objectives in this area, Thailand may not need to provide further intellectual property protection for them. This thesis examined the extent to which animals and animal breeds have protection under the Patent Act B.E.2522 (1979) as amended by the Patent Act (No 2) B.E.2535 (1992) and the Patent Act (No 3) B.E.2542 (1999) Act and the Trade Secrets Act B.E.2545 (2002) as amended by the Trade Secrets Act (No 2) B.E.2558 (2015). The Patent Act B.E.2522 (1979) is unlikely to provide protection for animals and animal breeds. Animals and animal breeds are not the subject matter of product patent protection and process patent protection does not extend to animals and animal breeds produced by the use of the patented process. However, the Trade Secrets Act B.E.2545 (2002) as an alternative form of protection provides some level of protection for animals and animal breeds. The Trade Secrets Act B.E.2545 (2002) provides indirect protection for animals and animal breeds through protection of genetic information and trade information related to animals and animal breeds. Such information does not necessarily lose its secrecy when animals and animal breeds are generally known or accessible. Trade secret protection for animals and animal breeds through protection of genetic information is also regarded as sufficient by the various stakeholders who were interviewed in the course of this project. Consequently, the existing level of intellectual property protection for animals and animal breeds is sufficient. There is no demonstrated reason at present for Thailand to introduce a new form of intellectual property protection for animals and animal breeds.