Section 18: Right to use of a name
Statutory text (Thai original)
สิทธิของบุคคลในการที่จะใช้นามอันชอบที่จะใช้ได้นั้น ถ้ามีบุคคลอื่นโต้แย้งก็ดี หรือบุคคลผู้เป็นเจ้าของนามนั้นต้องเสื่อมเสียประโยชน์เพราะการที่มีผู้อื่นมาใช้นามเดียวกันโดยมิได้รับอำนาจให้ใช้ได้ก็ดี บุคคลผู้เป็นเจ้าของนามจะเรียกให้บุคคลนั้นระงับความเสียหายก็ได้ ถ้าและเป็นที่พึงวิตกว่าจะต้องเสียหายอยู่สืบไป จะร้องขอต่อศาลให้สั่งห้ามก็ได้ส่วนที่ ๒ความสามารถ
Verbatim from the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State
English translation
If the right to use of a name by a person entitled to it is disputed by another, or if the interest of the person entitled is injured by the fact that another uses the same name without authority, then the person entitled may demand from the other abatement of the injury. If a continuance of the injury is to be apprehended, he may apply for an injunction.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 18 is part of Book 1 (General Principles) of the Thai Civil and Commercial Code. This entry is awaiting firm-authored commentary; the statutory text above is verbatim from the Office of the Council of State (OCS Krisdika) Thai source, with the English translation from the FAO/UN FAOLEX repository. Always rely on the Thai original for legal proceedings.
Why this matters in practice
For lawyers: the section requires both a disputed right or use of the same name without authority AND actual or apprehended injury to the name-holder's interests; proof of injury is essential. For laypeople: if a company uses your family name without permission and it damages your reputation or interests, you may ask a court to order them to stop.
Legislative history
Part of the original Civil & Commercial Code codification; no major subsequent amendment. The provision applies to natural persons' surnames and given names; dedicated intellectual property legislation now governs most trade name and trade mark disputes.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 8137/2551 (2008)
Using another's surname as a company name does not automatically give rise to a claim under section 18; the plaintiff must prove actual injury or a reasonable apprehension of continuing injury.
The plaintiff claimed that a company using his family name as its corporate name infringed his right under section 18. The Court held that using the same surname as a company name does not by itself trigger section 18; the plaintiff must show that the use caused actual injury to his interests, damaged his reputation, or created a reasonable apprehension of ongoing harm. On the facts, no such injury was proved.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 51 Supreme Court decisions (1979 to 2025)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 6525/2559 (2016)
- Decision 15972/2557 (2014)
- Decision 10317/2556 (2013)
- Decision 13158/2555 (2012)
- Decision 3129/2555 (2012)
- Decision 1740/2554 (2011)
- Decision 11315/2553 (2010)
- Decision 2905/2552 (2009)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
- Section 420 14
- Section 421 12
- Thai CPC s. 142 8
- Thai CPC s. 246 5
- Thai Penal Code s. 272 4
- Section 438 4
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Civil and Commercial Code, s. 18 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Civil and Commercial Code (Thailand), s. 18. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-18/ (accessed 8 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.พ.พ. มาตรา 18 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-18/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-18/"><p>If the right to use of a name by a person entitled to it is disputed by another, or if the interest of the person entitled is injured by the fact that another uses the same name without authority, then the person entitled may demand…</p><footer>Civil and Commercial Code, s. 18 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-18/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.