Why Registering Your Company in Thailand Is Not the Same as Protecting Your Brand
Foreign entrepreneurs setting up in Thailand frequently make an assumption that turns out to be expensive. They register their company with the Department of Business Development, receive their certificate, and reasonably conclude that the name on that certificate is now theirs to use. It isn't — at least not in the way they think.
Two separate Thai government bodies administer two entirely separate legal frameworks here, and confusing them is one of the most common causes of avoidable disputes.
The DBD registers companies. The DIP registers trademarks.
The Department of Business Development operates under the Civil and Commercial Code. When it registers a company, that company becomes a juristic person under CCC Section 66 — a legal entity capable of holding assets, entering contracts, and incurring liabilities separately from its shareholders. That is what a DBD registration achieves, and it is genuinely valuable.
What it does not achieve is any right to use that name commercially as a brand. The DBD does not search the trademark register before approving a company name. It confirms only that no other company holds the identical corporate name in its own system. Whether your chosen name collides with an existing registered trademark is not a question the DBD asks.
The Department of Intellectual Property administers the Trademark Act B.E. 2534 and grants exclusive commercial rights to use a mark for specified classes of goods or services. Those are the rights that determine what appears on your packaging, your website, and your e-commerce listings.
Why the distinction bites
Consider a common scenario: an entrepreneur registers a company name with the DBD, builds a product line around it, and launches on a major e-commerce platform. Months later the listings vanish, taken down after an IP complaint from a trademark holder who filed the same name at the DIP.
The company registration provides no defence. Thailand operates a strict first-to-file trademark system — the party that files first acquires the rights, regardless of who used the name earlier or who holds a company registration under it. A registered trademark holder can enforce through platform takedown procedures, civil proceedings, criminal complaints under Trademark Act Sections 108 and 109, and border seizure via Customs recordation.
What to do instead
Search the DIP database before you settle on a company name — not after. The search takes minutes and would have prevented every dispute of this kind I have seen described.
If the name is clear, file the trademark application at the DIP at the same time you incorporate, not once the business is running. Under first-to-file, the priority date is what protects you, and every week of delay is a week of exposure.
Choose a distinctive name. Descriptive names — the kind that telegraph what the product does — are both harder to register and more likely to collide with existing marks in the same sector.
A company registration creates a legal entity. A trademark registration protects a brand. You need both, in that order. If you are settling on a name for a Thai venture — or have already discovered a conflict — get in touch.
Law stated as at the date of publication: May 7, 2026.
This article provides general information on Thai company and intellectual property law and is not legal advice. It does not create a lawyer-client relationship, and each matter turns on its facts. Mikołaj Kawka advises on cross-border corporate structuring and works with Thai-qualified counsel on Thai-law matters.