Lacoste urges crackdown on counterfeit goods

After a meeting with Lacoste’s legal team in Bangkok yesterday, Deputy Commerce Minister Siriwat Kachornprasart said the government would consider amending the law to punish landlords who allowed trading in illegal goods.
The law should punish traders and the owners of buildings who allow sales of copied goods in their premises, Siriwat said. He added that if traders had nowhere to sell illegal products, then counterfeiting would decrease.
A draft law to punish landlords who allow such trade was initiated during the Abhisit Vejjajiva government.
However, the act has not yet received Parliament’s approval.
Siriwat added that the government would also tighten cooperation with producers of brand-name goods to continue suppressing counterfeit goods and boost awareness of intellectual-property rights in the country.

Easily visible

Nathalie Moulle-Berteaux, Lacoste’s executive vice president for public and legal affairs, said the company was seriously concerned about counterfeit-goods trading because the goods are easily visible in the Thai market.
“The company appreciates the Thai government’s seriousness in combating trading in illegal goods in the past years.
However, the firm expects more stringent enforcement of laws to punish the owners of buildings where the goods are sold, and the traders to limit trading opportunity for illegal goods,” she said.
Lacoste expects sales worth ?1.5 billion (Bt63 billion) globally a year. However, the firm said it lost some revenue to underground goods sales worldwide each year.
To combat the problem of counterfeit goods, the firm has employed Satyapon & Partners Ltd to monitor the situation closely in Thailand.