Escaping the trap of being a 2.0 industrial country and becoming a market for Chinese goods flooding into Thailand—which not only present quality and standard issues but also cause Thai SMEs to collapse because they cannot compete on price.
The way out of this trap is to use innovation to create differentiation, upgrading Thai products from mass-produced low-cost items, which are being overtaken by Chinese goods, into higher-value products through innovation and invention.
Associate Professor Dr. Wiriya Techarurongroj, Director of the Institute of Technology and Innovation Management (INT) at Mahidol University and President of the Association of Intellectual Property Managers and Technology Transfer Professionals (AITP), reflected on Thailand’s industrial structural problems, which still lack the use of innovations arising from intellectual property (IP) and domestic inventions. “Thailand does not lack ideas. On the contrary, we have a large amount of research, but we still lack a system to bring it to market.”
Each year, about 8,000 patent applications are filed in Thailand. Surprisingly, 90% come from foreign applicants, while only about 10% are domestic. For petty patents, there are about 4,000 applications per year, with about 90% from Thai applicants. This proportion needs to change—Thai patent applications must increase.
Mahidol University alone currently holds about 600 patents and petty patents of research work under protection (prohibiting imitation).
“Thailand does not lack researchers, but what we still lack is a system that allows research and intellectual property to reach the market. Even if the work has high potential, without connection to industry, investors, or business mechanisms, it will not yield economic or social benefits.”
“In the past, success might have been measured by the number of patents or research outputs, but what’s important is whether the research is actually used, how much it can be extended into business, and how much economic value it creates.”
Examples of Mahidol’s ongoing research include Siriraj researchers’ work on cultivating Gen 2 cells to replace fillers used in injections for anti-aging. This method is safer and also improves skin condition.
There is also research on protein drinks made from egg whites for people allergic to milk, currently under negotiation with private companies interested in commercial development, as well as research accessible to SMEs with moderate value, such as new mouthwash formulas, supplements, and herbal extracts.
Even advanced medical research such as gene and cell therapy, which holds promise for cancer treatment starting with leukemia and progressing to tumor destruction, with researchers from Siriraj, Rama, and Mahidol conducting studies. If developed into widely used medicines, this could become a flagship of Thai research in this era.
As the university’s research and innovation management body, INT collaborates to develop and drive Thailand’s intellectual property ecosystem in four key areas: 1. Promoting research for commercial use to enhance business and industry capacity; 2. Developing a system to screen high-quality research and patent applications to improve patent quality; 3. Elevating institutions to international standards and building regional cooperation networks; 4. Developing IP and Technology Transfer personnel to create a new generation of innovation managers supporting an innovation-based economy.
“Modern universities should not merely be knowledge producers but must act as engines for building new national economies, serving as Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) that connect research to the business sector.”