High hopes for IPR upgrade

The government has high expectations that Washington will upgrade the Kingdom’s status to the Watch List next year following the passage of many IPR-related laws and the serious suppression of illegal goods.

Nuntawan Sakuntanaga, director-general of the Intellectual Property Department, said the US should be satisfied with Thailand’s attempts to reduce IPR infringement and the passing of laws to punish violators, while the government has join forces with many organisations in cracking down on the illegal copying of goods during the past several years.

“I believe the US will consider upgrading our trade status from the PWL to the Watch List after we demonstrated the suppression of IPR violations, passed relevant laws and increased IPR awareness of in recent years,” she added.

Thailand has been on the PWL under the US Special 301 Report since 2008 on the grounds that it lacks awareness of IPR protection and specific laws to prevent violation.

PWL status means that the Kingdom is at risk of losing trade privileges with the US unless improvements are made in these areas.

During the remaining four months before submitting documents to the US Trade Represen-tative for its final consideration in February, the Intellectual Property Department will press ahead with drawing up a strategy for tightening cooperation with major landowning agencies, such as the Bangkok Metropolitan Adminis-tration, the State Railway of Thailand, provincial governments and local administration offices, to crack down on trading in copied goods on their land, said Nuntawan.