Thai firms urged to make use of IPRS
Thomson Reuters, the global leader in intelligent information for businesses and professionals, has urged Thai businesses to use intellectual property rights (IPRs) as a tool to penetrate overseas markets amid seamless trade.
“Thai SMEs will face tougher competition and could face difficulties in promoting their products and services to the international market if they do not recognise IPRs and raise awareness of the concern,” Wong Wuei Fuh, managing director of Asia Thomson Reuters, said last week.
SMEs will be challenged in the future because big companies will use IPRs as one of their tools to promote growth, he said.
Thomson Reuters not only provides news contents but also financial service products, software, reports and databases to help businesses make good decisions. The firm has used Thailand as a regional outsourcing centre for software.
Thai enterprises should register their copyrights and patents and learn more about global market trends and IPR laws so that they can prepare to enter each market, he said.
There are always different ways of looking at patents and IP rights, such as the case between Apple and Samsung. Companies need to study IPR laws and register their patents and copyrights internationally before going to do business across borders, he said.
Although the cost of IP registration is quite stiff for SMEs, the cost can vary and there is a lot of cheaper knowledge that they can invest in and gain from.
For big companies, the cost of IPRs may not be considered a huge burden for their business, but for SMEs it is meaningful, Wong said. SMEs need to know how to find incentives from the government to raise the competency of their IPR protection.
The cost of IP registration could range from only a few thousand US dollars to US$50,000-$100,000 (about Bt1.5 million-Bt3 million).
To help SMEs, the government should support more investment in IPR development as well as encourage enterprises to be aware of IPRs, Wong said. The government should also give an incentive plan and tax reductions to SMEs, as well as promote education for stimulating innovation and creativity.
Thailand today is considered as a good investment landscape for the company as the country has moved away from a manufacturing-based society to knowledge-based. The country will continue to be a destination for multinational company investment. Compared with other Asean countries, Thailand has made big progress in IP awareness.
More investment related to IP businesses will be going to Thailand, he added.
