US expected to upgrade Thai status in annual review
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THE United States is likely to upgrade Thailand's trade status on intellectual property awareness this year following the junta's successful attempts to crack down on copyright violations, the Commerce Ministry has said.
The US Trade Representative was to announce its annual review yesterday (April 30, US time) under the Special 301 measure of the adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual-property rights (IPR) protection by US trade partners.
Deputy Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said Thailand was expected to be upgraded from the Priority Watch List (PWL) to the Watch List (WL) due to its efforts to protect intellectual property rights. The government has also made strenuous efforts to raise IPR awareness and enforce many related laws.
Thailand has been downgraded to the PWL since 2007 and has remained at that level as it struggled to manage IPR problems, meaning exports to the United States might be subject to high duties or barriers.
Apiradi said that during the past few years, the government has made an effort to raise IPR awareness. Two new laws related to IPR protection on copyright protection and anti-camcorder acts have been announced in the Royal Gazette since February 5, and would be enforced in 180 days, in the case of the first law, and 60 days, in the case of the second.
Thailand has also drawn up a plan to suppress IPR violations and had national strategies on intellectual property rights between 2012 and 2016.
In addition, to facilitate innovators, the Intellectual Property Department has also adopted an e-system to enable people to register copyright and patent online.
Thailand has also worked closely with the US under Thai-US Creative Partnership to crack down on intellectual infringement on the Internet as well as raise awareness on IPR among the young generation.
Last year, Thailand has also reported that it has filed more than 4,000 cases on intellectual property right violation to the civil and criminal courts.
Meanwhile, the Economic Crime Police yesterday issued a statement that they were stepping up efforts to reduce the number of companies violating software copyright laws by setting up a hotline, website and social media channels for the public to report illegal software in the workplace.
Since last year, police have raided more than 50 companies who allegedly used illegal and unlicensed software, and several of the most recent raids took place because of information given to police by people through digital media.
The use of digital and social media for investigations is growing. The tips collected are sometimes anonymous – but contain enough details about the use of illegal and unlicensed software for police to investigate.
All of these tips are about large companies that have enough resources to use legal software.
Generally, these companies fail to take necessary steps to ensure they use only legal software. In some cases, management willingly violates the law by choosing illegal software.
Crackdown on four
Social media led to police actions against four companies in the last two weeks.
The first was a distributor of washroom decoration materials located in Bangkok. The company has annual revenue of Bt600 million. Unlicensed software found on its 46 computers was worth about Bt2.5 million.
The second was an engineering and graphic design service provider with annual revenue of Bt267 million. The infringement value of unlicensed software installed on 35 computers was Bt3.4 million.
The third company, owned by Thai shareholders, was found using Bt18 million worth of unlicensed software on its PCs. This is the highest value raid of the year.
The fourth company was a design firm in Bangkok using Bt4.5 million worth of unlicensed software.
All together, these companies were found using unlicensed software on 136 PCs.
This follows a raid last month of a company with registered assets of Bt1 billion in Chacheongsao.
