The year 2025 looks much like 2024 for Thailand when it comes to the United States Trade Representative’s Special 301 Report: Despite praise from the U.S. government for the Thai government for its work in improving the country’s IP system, Thailand remains on the reports Watch List. 

The report, issued in April 2025, says that Thailand has made progress in several areas, including strengthening IP protection and enforcement and releasing draft amendment to the Patent Act in December 2024. The amendment aims to streamline the patent registration process, reduce backlogs, shorten processing times, and prepare for Thailand’s potential accession to the Hague Agreement on international industrial design registration. 

The USTR, however, expressed continuing concern about Thailand’s enforcement efforts, citing reports that while authorities focus on warehouses and distribution centres in their search for counterfeit goods, such goods remain easy to obtain online. It also said that law enforcement officials often target small retail sellers of counterfeits rather than manufacturers and distributors. 

However, the government seems to have taken heed of such concerns, and the cabinet has approved a new framework for the enforcement of IP rights. The Thailand Intellectual Property Work Plan has been prepared in coordination with the Office of the USTR, and its adoption should pave the way for Thailand’s removal from the watchlist, Commerce Minister Pichai Naripthaphan told reporters in Bangkok in mid-May, according to the Bangkok Post. 

The framework “is a demonstration of Thailand’s determination to solve the problem of intellectual property infringements”, Pichai said, adding the plan would now be shared with the USTR and various Thai agencies to take remedial steps, the newspaper reported. 

It is with this ongoing improvement in IP protection in Thailand that we turned to IP professionals in the region in order to understand better what clients need today. Asia IP asked a large number of professionals – mostly in-house counsel and corporate legal managers – what they were looking for from their legal service providers. From their answers, we have compiled our list of Thailand’s IP Experts, those lawyers who understand what their clients need and are able to provide them with the best practical advice.  

It should come as no surprise that Thai powerhouse Tilleke & Gibbins leads the list of law firms represented on the list; the powerhouse law firm placed eight lawyers on our list (Alan Adcock, Nuttaphol Arammuang, Somboon Earterasarun, Sukontip Jitmongkolthong, Wiramrudee Mokkhavesa, Kasama Sriwatanakul, Suebsiri Taweepon and Darani Vachanavuttivong). Rouse (Manoon Changchumni, Fabrice Mattei, Peeraya Thammasujarit and Nuttachai Unaratana) and Satyapon & Partners (Kritchawat Chainapasak, Verasak Maiwatana, Kritsana Mingtongkhum and Satyapon Sachdecha) each placed four lawyers on our list, while Ananda Intellectual Property (Franck Fougere, Kritchakorn Nimwenai and Nuttakorn Sorakun), Domnern Somgiat & Boonma (Prabjote Busdee, Chalermphong Jitkuntivong and Apiwatt Kongsoowan) and ILCT (Ratinuch Kawnachaimongkol, Ratchapong Thongdeetae and Titirat Wattanachewanopakorn) each had three. Eighteen different firms, many of them newcomers to the Bangkok legal scene, each placed either one or two lawyers on the list.  

Our survey includes only those lawyers working at law firms in Thailand. Most of the lawyers named to our list have multiple practice specialties. Many of them are litigators, while others concentrate on prosecution work or provide strategic advice.  

All of them have something in common: they are Asia IP’s IP Experts for Thailand. 

– Gregory Glass 

Thailand’s IP Experts is based solely on independent editorial research conducted by Asia IP. As part of this project, we turned to thousands of in-house counsel in Asia and around the world, and asked them to nominate private-practice lawyers, including foreign legal consultants, advisers and counsel.  

The final list reflects the nominations received combined with the input of the editorial team at Asia IP, which has nearly 50 years of collective experience in researching and understanding the legal market in Southeast Asia. 

All private practice intellectual property lawyers working at law firms in Thailand were eligible for inclusion in the nomination process; there were no fees or any other requirements for inclusion in the process. 

The names of our 50 IP Experts are published here. Each IP Expert was given the opportunity to include their biography and contact details in print and on our website, for which a fee was charged.