The Madrid System has long offered foreign applicants distinct advantages, including centralized management, simplified administration, and a traditionally predictable examination timeline. Consequently, a significant number of foreign applicants have continuously diverted from national applications to international registrations designating Thailand for protection. As a result of this trend, however, the predictable timeline has now become a drawback rather than an advantage.

With a limited number of examiners in the Madrid Department but an increasingly voluminous number of applications, there has been a substantial delay in examination, as provisional refusals are usually issued very close to the 18-month deadline. Moreover, due to the examiners’ priority on the first-round examination to meet the 18-month deadline, there are even further unpredictable and substantial delays for subsequent examinations in the event of responses to provisional refusals, for which there is no prescribed time limit. This unpredictability has posed practical and commercial challenges to applicants who require timely registration to meet their marketing or business plans or enforcement needs. In view of the substantial delays for Madrid applications, many applicants are considering switching back to the national route.

For national applications, on the other hand, with a larger number of examiners, applications filed directly with the Thai Trademark Office are normally examined much sooner. In particular, the examination is typically finished approximately within 10 months. In addition, applicants may customize the specification of goods and services in accordance with Thai standards to avoid rejection. In the absence of any irregularities or rejections, registration can then be granted within approximately 12-14 months. While the examination of national applications under the normal route is already faster than that of Madrid applications, the Thai Trademark Office has taken further steps to accelerate the examination timeframe by progressively introducing multiple fast-track options at no additional official filing fees. These filing options reflect the Trademark Office’s praiseworthy efforts to provide practical solutions for applicants seeking urgent protection in today’s fast-evolving and dynamic commercial landscape.

The accelerated route with the most flexible requirement is the 6-month fast-track option, which has been available since 2022. This option is applicable to single-class applications filed for any type of marks, by any means (paper or electronically). Applicants may simply select a maximum of 50 items of goods or services from the suggested terms in the Trademark Office’s Guidelines available on https://tmsearch.ipthailand.go.th/ without any further requirements. Applications satisfying these requirements will automatically be examined on an urgent basis, with the first examination result expected to be known within 6 months.

A year after the 6-month option became available, the Trademark Office further strengthened the time-sensitive national filing framework by introducing an even faster option, under which the first examination result will be known within only 4 months. However, this 4-month fast-track option is limited to applications electronically filed for a letter, word, device or combination thereof and applied for as a trademark or service mark. The application must contain no more than 10 items of goods or services in only one class. The goods and services must still comply with the Trademark Office’s Guidelines. Additionally, applicants must submit a formal request for expedited examination together with supporting evidence showing the need for urgent use of the mark and a search result from certain databases. Within 15 days from filing, the applicants will be notified whether their applications are eligible. If not, the applications will be examined under the normal timeframe.

Interestingly, in celebration of the New Year holiday, the Trademark Office took the auspicious opportunity to make available a special 3-month fast-track for applications filed between December 15, 2025, and January 31, 2026. This announcement is particularly noteworthy as it marks the first temporary fast-track scheme introduced to commemorate a special occasion.

In early January 2026, while the New Year’s fast-track option was still in effect, the Trademark Office introduced a “4-month Plus+” fast-track option with the same requirements as the existing 4-month fast-track option. Nonetheless, this latest addition is available exclusively for an “e-commerce business operator”, which is broadly defined to cover anyone conducting business in any industry on the Internet, either individuals or businesses. This first business-oriented fast-track option demonstrates the Trademark Office’s observation of filing trends, as retail services ranked among the highest filing sectors for the past year (2025). Beyond that, it shows the Trademark Office’s acknowledgment of the difficulties faced by the businesses. Especially, e-commerce operators, who represent one of the top filing sectors, need urgent protection to tackle the rapid pace of online commercialization. For other business sectors, applicants may still rely on the first two existing options and may also remain optimistic about similar business-oriented options in the future.

The Trademark Office’s active expansion of the fast-track options for national applications over the years should draw close attention and prompt a reassessment of filing strategies, particularly where urgency is a priority and the core goods and services align with the Trademark Office’s Guidelines. The shift towards national applications through fast-track routes as the primary option may be advisable. It should be borne in mind that there is no harm in trying these fast-track options. Even if found ineligible, the application will instead proceed under the normal examination timeframe, which remains significantly shorter than that for Thai designations filed through the Madrid System. Moreover, applications failing to satisfy the urgency requirement under any of the 4-month options will automatically meet all requirements for the 6-month option and will therefore be eligible under that option. In conclusion, with proper strategic planning, businesses can secure trademark protection within a relatively short period of time.