Severe penalties for copyright violations in works
As a serious attempt to crack down on copycat goods, the Commerce Ministry aims to increase the penalties, through both imprisonment and fines, for traders in illegal products.
The amendment to the Copyright Act will allow fines for illegal goods on an item-by-item basis instead of the current fines of between Bt100,000 and Bt600,000. Those convicted could also face jail terms of between six months and four years. In addition, the imprisonment will not wait for suspending jail anymore.
The move is aimed at eliminating the trade in counterfeit products. The Intellectual Property Department will propose the amendment to the Cabinet soon, Deputy Commerce Minister Poom Sarapol said yesterday.
"The government needs to launch stringent punishments under the Copyright Act so that illegal traders will be afraid to sell the fake goods," he said.
Moreover, the ministry targets reducing infringements of IP rights by 80 per cent this year compared with the 2003 figure.
Pajchima Tanasanti, director-general of the department, said piracy should diminish as the government has serious attempted to crack down on violations.
A special task force of the Royal Thai Police for suppressing IP violations was set up recently. The team on Wednesday (April 11) immediately Yesterday it arrested several illegal-goods traders at MBK Center and in Pratunam, seizing 10,000 items.
Pajchima said this special team would regularly inspect places that have been reported for selling illegal goods.
In addition, after many years of attempting to reduce infringements, the department will soon upgrade Panthip Plaza and Sukhumvit Road from being categorised as red zones for having |a high rate of IP violations to yellow zone. These two areas are now highly developed, as landlords have been encouraged to allow only sales of legal goods.
The Royal Thai Police, the Department of Special Investigation, and the Customs Department reported that 10,453 cases involving IP infringements were dealt with and about 4.86 million illegal products were seized last year.
The fight against piracy is region-wide. To increase awareness and crack down on IP violation, Thailand and the other nine Asean members have jointly drafted a four-year plan to impose IP-enforcement measures from this year to 2015.
Under the plan, it will establish an Asean IPR Enforcement Coordination Centre.
