Development of patent database in Thailand for assessing local firms' technological capabilities

This paper presents the methodology of an analytical patent database in Thailand from the Thai patent authority, Department of Intellectual Property, and provides descriptive statistics showing the technological catching up of Thai local applicants to multinational corporations investing in Thailand. The share of domestic patent applicants has increased over time, which suggests the improvement of the technological capability of Thai local applicants. However, the upward trend of patenting is explained by an increasing patenting from Thai nonprofit research organizations, including (national) universities. The share of joint R&D patents by Thai local firms and academia (research organizations and universities) and the share of local invention patents by multinationals have increased recently. Hence, spending on research organization by both the public R&D and the local R&D by multinationals could contribute to the technological upgrading of Thai local firms.