Pursuant to Art. 14 of the Foreign Business Act, any initial foreign investment is subject to a minimum capital requirement of THB 2 million (approx. USD 56.000). In the case of restricted businesses (including advertising), the requirement is equivalent to 25% of the total three-year average expected annual expenditure but not less than THB 3 million (approx. USD 84.000).

Section 14 of the Patent Act 1979 (amended in 1999) stipulates that an applicant for a patent must possess one of the following qualifications: (i) be a Thai national or a juristic person with its headquarters located in Thailand; (ii) be a national of a country that is a party to a convention or international agreement on patent protection to which Thailand is also a party; (iii) be a national of a country that permits Thai nationals or juristic persons with headquarters in Thailand to apply for patents in that country; or (iv) be domiciled in, or have an industrial or commercial establishment in, Thailand or a country that is a party to a convention or international agreement on patent protection to which Thailand is also a party.
To file patents, the Ministerial Regulation No. 21 states that if the patent applicant does not reside in the Kingdom of Thailand, the applicant shall authorise an agent or patent attorney registered with the Director-General of the Department of Intellectual Property to act on his behalf (Clause 13). Moreover, the Power of Attorney (POA) shall be attached with the revenue stamp of 30 Thai Baht (around 1 USD) for each patent agent/patent attorney/application. The POA document, if not in a foreign language, must be translated into Thai (Clause 15).

Thailand is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Thailand has a copyright regime under the law Copyright Act 1994. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Art. 32 lists the exceptions, which include research or study of the work provided that such not for profit; the use for personal benefit or the family benefit including close relatives; review, accompanied by an acknowledgement of the copyright owner, among others

Copyright is not adequately enforced online in Thailand. Reported concerns include online piracy via devices and applications that enable users to stream and download unauthorised content, overly broad exceptions to technological protection measures, unauthorised collective management organisations, widespread use of unlicensed software in the private sector, a backlog of pending pharmaceutical patent applications, and cable and satellite signal theft.

Thailand has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

Thailand has not signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

According to the Trade Secrets Act, trade secrets can be in any means or any medium which conveys a statement, story, or fact in formula, form, compilations, or assembled works, programs, methods, techniques, or processes (Section 3). The disclosure or use of trade secrets by a governmental agency that supervises the maintenance of trade secrets shall not be deemed as an infringement of rights in trade secrets in the following cases:
- When it is necessary to protect the health or safety of the public, or;
- When it is necessary for the benefit of the public, not for a commercial purpose, the governmental agency must proceed under the procedure to protect such trade secrets from being used in unfair trading activities (Section 7.2).

The Trade Secrets Act (TSA) provides a framework for effective protection of trade secrets. Any “trade information”, such as an instrument of statements, facts, or other information that meets the following three requirements, is protected as a trade secret:
- It is confidential, i.e. the trade information is not being publicly known to or accessible by persons who are not related to the trade information;
- It has a commercial value derived from its secrecy;
- Its secrecy is protected by its owner/controller, who has taken appropriate and sufficient protection measures to maintain its secrecy.
In practice, a non-disclosure agreement is commonly used to safeguard and maintain the secrecy of a trade secret.
If there is a dispute concerning the trade secret because a person infringes its secrecy, the trade secret owner can submit the dispute to the Trade Secret Committee for mediation and settlement. Alternatively, they can file a lawsuit in court against the infringer for interim and permanent injunction orders and compensations for actual damages and punitive damages. The lawsuit must be filed within three years from the date on which the infringement act and the infringer are known or within 10 years from the date of the infringement act.

List 3 of the Foreign Business Act includes industries in which "Thai nationals are not yet ready to compete with foreigners". These are open to foreign investors provided they receive a licence from the Director-General of the Department of Business Development of the Ministry of Commerce and approval from the Foreign Business Committee. A wide range of businesses are covered under List 3, including advertising businesses. A foreign company can engage in List 3 activities if Thai nationals hold a majority of the limited company’s shares. Any company with a majority of foreign shareholders (more than 50%) cannot engage in List 3 activities unless it receives an exception from the Ministry of Commerce under its Foreign Business License application.

Thailand is a signatory of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) of 1996 and its 2015 expansion (ITA II).

Chapter 7/1 of the Ministerial Regulation (No. 2) defines "Promoted domestic manufactured supplies" as those certified as "Made in Thailand" by the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI). This certification is only granted to domestic productions, and the Approval List certified by the FTI is published. Procurement methods must align with the Public Procurement and Supplies Administration Act 2017. If certified supplies are insufficient to meet demand or if imported products are necessary, the government authority must refer the matter to the heads of the government departments for consideration. Additionally, government departments are required to spend at least 60% of their budgets on procuring domestic supplies for construction and certain non-construction work (Clause 27.3).

The Cabinet Resolutions grant privilege to the products listed as Thai Innovative Products. Since 2016, the Budget Bureau has introduced the monthly report of the 'Thai Innovation List' to develop domestic industrial capacity in several innovation-centered economic sectors. The Innovation List grants special government procurement privileges only to the products from authorised Thai majority-owned companies. The list covers products from various sectors, including electrical, electronics, and telecommunications.
The Innovation Products is prescribed in the Ministerial Regulation 2020. The products listed as Innovation Products are those that the state needs to promote or support (Clause 12). Thai governmental departments must spend at least 30% of their budget procuring the listed products (Clause 13).

According to Art. 73 of the Public Procurement and Supplies Administration Act, Thailand does not permit direct cross-border participation of foreign suppliers in its government procurement contracts. Foreign companies can participate, but they must register with the Comptroller General's Department, following the criteria, procedures, and conditions prescribed in the Ministerial Regulations Stipulating Criteria, Methods and Conditions for Consultant Registration. Clauses 4-5 of this regulation distinguish between two types of consultants: (i) freelance consultants and (ii) juristic person consultants. Generally, eligible suppliers must be juristic persons registered in Thailand, with an office in the country and at least half of the board directors holding Thai citizenship. Freelance consultants must be Thai nationals, and in the case of juristic persons, at least 51% of their total shares must be held by Thai citizens.