By Christopher P. Singer —

Back on September 24, 2009, WIPO announced that Thailand
deposited its instrument of accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), becoming the 142nd contracting
state of the treaty.  The current list of contracting states can be viewed here.  The accession by Thailand means that in
any international application filed on or after the effective date (December 24,
2009), Thailand (TH) will automatically be designated, and as it will be bound
by Chapter II of the Treaty, will automatically be elected in any demand for
international preliminary examination filed in respect of an international
application filed on or after December 24, 2009.  Also, as of that date,
nationals and residents of Thailand will themselves be able to file PCT
applications.