Female Monks in Thailand being Ordained Despite Being Against the Law

An interview with the Huffington Post reveals that females in Thailand are not allowed to be ordained as monks. About 93% of Thailand’s population is Buddhist and only 100 females are monks compared to the 300,000 males that are monks.

Female monks comment that there is a lot of misogyny deep rooted in Thailand’s Buddhism. For example, there are a lot of sexist teachings that are not in the original texts or a lot has been left out to favor men being monks. Venerable Dhammananda adds that “they don’t listen to the Bhudda carefully”.

Thailand is so against female monks that they have even been attacked. These female monks fear for their life every time they go out for their morning walks blessing the community and receiving food.

Male monks retaliate with the explanation that women are too sensitive and not disciplined enough “to endure the hardships of a monk”, especially living in a temple, being abstinent and isolated from society.

Watch the full video here

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Journalists Facing Prosecution for Using Drones in Myanmar

Singaporean freelance camera man Lau Hon Meng and Malaysian documentary producer Mok Choy Lin were sentenced to two months in jail for using a drone, breaching Myanmar’s Aircraft Act, details The Strait Times.

Persons victimized by a breach of contract in Thailand should seek attorneys with contract and litigation experience, court disputes between Thai and foreign entities may potentially be heard by the Court of Intellectual Property and International Trade Law.

Although, Myanmar technically doesn’t have any specific legislation outlawing the use of drones, authorities do not like them over their territories. They are being charged with violating the Export and Import law. Those who export/import prohibited goods can be fined and jailed up to three years.

On top of the drone charges, immigration officials are also trying to charge the pair and their two interpreters for violating the 1947 Immigration Act. Under this Act, individuals who remain in the country after the infringement of rules can be fined and jailed up to five years.

Lau and Mok’s defense attorneys are currently working on getting the export and import charges dismissed.

Read the full story here

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Thailand to Draft New Industrial Design Act

Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property is in the process of drafting a new industrial design law that is set to change the way industrial designs are assessed, registered and protected, both in the country and internationally.

If passed, the law would amend the Thai Patent Act, removing the industrial design aspect altogether to make way for separate legislation.

The bill would bring the following changes:

·         An Extended Term of Protection

The current protection period of ten years would be reduced to five. However, it would also have the possibility of being renewed twice, enabling a full term of up to 15 years.

·         A Creativity Requirement

The current law requires designs to be only “novel” and “industrially applicable”. The new law would introduce an extra requirement for creativity, which means that designs consisting only of well-known shapes, such as those found in geometry or nature, would not be protected.

Thailand trademark and IP attorneys specialize in patent and trademark filing.

·         New Time Restraints for Examination

The system by which applications are assessed and registered would be streamlined to take less time. The current extended period of 180 days will be cut in half, allowing an initial 60-day period with the possibility of an extention for an extra 30 days.

·         All-in-One Applications

While the current law requires applications to make individual applications for each country they wish their design to be registered in, the new legislation will allow international registration to be granted with a single application.

The bill is being drafted in preparation for Thailand’s compliance with the ASEAN IPR Action Plan, which requires all ASEAN countries to become a contracting party to the Geneva Act of 1999 under the Hague Agreement by 2018.

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