Someone else registered your trademark in Thailand: what can you do?

If a brand used in China appears in someone else’s Thai trademark application, do not immediately assume bad faith or agree to buy it back. A pending application, publication and registration call for different procedures; an identical name does not necessarily cover every product. Obtain the full Thai file and confirm the mark, applicant, goods or services, publication and registration status first.

Choose the procedure by status and protect the deadline

Before publication, check the application’s progress and your rights, and arrange publication monitoring. The publication-opposition process cannot simply be applied before it starts. Once published, a person relying on grounds under section 35 of the Trademark Act must file a reasoned opposition with the Registrar within 60 days of publication. Grounds include better rights, non-registrability or non-compliance with the Act. Keep that deadline under review even while negotiating a transfer.^{[Official source][Official source]}

After registration, identify the specific cancellation ground. Section 61 addresses defects in the statutory registration conditions, while section 63 concerns statutory non-use grounds; these petitions go to the Trademark Board. A court petition under section 67 based on better rights must be brought within five years of the Registrar’s registration order under section 40. That period does not start when you discover the registration and is not a universal limit for all cancellation procedures.^{[Official source][Official source]}

Non-use cancellation is not automatic loss of rights three years after registration. Bona fide use, the relevant period before the petition and statutory exceptions require assessment. Missing the publication-opposition period does not necessarily extinguish every remedy, but another route needs its own legal and evidential basis.^{[Official source]}

What evidence helps establish your rights?

• File and deadlines: application number, full mark, goods or services, publication record, registration order and notices received.
• Brand development and use: Chinese or other registrations, early designs, first use, orders, invoices, Thai sales, advertising and exhibitions, linked to dates, entities and goods.
• Agency or distribution: contracts, trademark-filing terms, scope of authority, correspondence and termination records, showing who was authorised to apply and in whose name.

The DIP examination manual identifies foreign registrations, use, advertising, receipts and product photographs as examples of relevant evidence. Records must address the actual issues; foreign-entity documents, powers of attorney and Thai translations also have formal requirements. A Chinese registration may be evidence, but does not automatically create a Thai registered right. A statement that you created the brand first, or one packaging photograph, will rarely explain the complete chain of rights.^{[Official source]}

Manage operations while the dispute is assessed

Give the handling lawyer your stock, packaging, production and channel timetable before comparing a transfer, compliant licence, rebranding or postponing a packaging batch. Do not promise that sales may continue before reviewing the rights. Preserve any demand letter or platform complaint with all attachments and delivery records, and arrange a timely response. A similar spelling does not automatically remove confusion risk.

Compare settlement costs with the cost of the dispute procedure. Even a successful opposition or cancellation does not automatically register the mark in your name. Your own application, registrability and applicable procedure still need review.

How THAIHOUSING can assist

Once an engagement is confirmed, conflicts checked and scope agreed, THAIHOUSING can coordinate Thai lawyers to review the file and deadlines, organise evidence and assess dispute or commercial options. The particular intellectual-property procedure and representative require separate confirmation. Cancellation, registration and negotiated outcomes cannot be guaranteed.

Frequently asked questions

Related services

• Corporate legal counsel
• Commercial litigation
• Thai trademark applications: protecting a brand before market entry

Last checked: 20 October 2026. This is an evergreen procedural guide, not an announcement of a new rule that day. It uses the consolidated Act through the 2016 amendments currently listed by DIP; the official Thai legislation controls.