BANGKOK (NNT) -To both facilitate trade and commerce while preventing license agents improperly exploiting legal loopholes to take advantage of merchants, the Department of Intellectual Property has held talks with the Royal Thai Police on the regulation of intellectual property license representatives to prevent abuses of power.
The Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) Director General Thosapone Dansuputra revealed the department has discussed, with the national police, requirements for intellectual property license representatives, who will have to be free from any criminal convictions and pass intellectual property training and an examination provided by the department.
With the new approach, official representative of companies will be issued representative cards by the DIP, who will also publish a database of those representatives, allowing the general public to verify their status via the DIP’s website or by scanning a QR code on the representative’s card.
This new supervision will allow the department to monitor any abuse of power, such as the request for a settlement fee, misrepresentation as a government agent and duplicated license fee requests. Any representatives found engaging in such actions will be prosecuted and have their representative card withdrawn.
