Abstract:
Thailand has amended the Trademark Act (No.2) 13.E. 2543 (A.D. 2000) in order to comply with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). Thailand has changed its laws in many aspects including the amendment of the items that can be used as Trademark. The amendments expanded the criteria for what may qualify as a Trademark. The important change was the addition to the definition of "Mark" in section 4 of the Trademark Act to include the combination of colors so that it can be used as trademark.However, the Act does not give the definition of the combination of colors. This leads to the intcrprctation problem of what could be used as the combination of colors. In addition, the new Act also has the problem in the distinctiveness of combination of colors. This is due to the fact that the new Act mentions that the distinctiveness of combination of colors must demonstratethe special characteristic; however, it does not define what are the special characteristics of combination of colors. The Act does not define the case when the trademark has normal characteristics and the owner of the trademark use that trademark with their products until it becomes well-known, or have advertised the trademark with their products until it becomes popular. In this case, the question arises whether the combination of colors which has the normal characteristics has the Distinctiveness Through Use similar to other Trademarks like name, word, or phase or not. Another potential problem is how the determination of the combination of colors is done so that it can detennine whether the new combination of colors is similar to the ones that have been registered. The mentioned issues have posted problems in registering the trademark in term of combination of colors to registration personnel, trademark registrar, and the people who intend to register trademarks. This has the negative impact to the trademark protection in order to fully protect the trademark in term of combination of colors. This thesis will focus on the problems that are introduced by this Act. It will also research the trademark protection in term of combination of colors in other countries such as United State of America, England, and Japan. Those trademark protections will be compared against the trademark protection of Thailand.From the research, the author suggests that the provisions of the Trademark Act concerning combination of colors need improvement. The Act should mention all those provisions of laws that are related to combination of colors. Thailand should study the bademark protection from other countries andimprove Thailancfs trademark Act appropriately, This is so that protection of the Tmdcmark in the fomi of combinafion of colom can be enforced effectively andefficiently which will provide great benefits to Thai people and the country as a whole.