One year ago
- April 19, 2004
A year ago the government was riding high coming of
its anti-drug drive. It could pick and choose the issues
or new ground it wanted to break, so April 1, 2003 was
confidently chosen as the end of piracy in Thailand.
We came across this selection of translations from Thai
papers from a year ago made by an EC organization in
anticipation of elimination of pirated goods:
(The EC_ASEAN Intellectual Property Rights Cooperation
Programme (ECAPII) - Report of Thai Press Monitor -
coverage of IP-related stories - Period Monitored: 1-14
March 2003)
* Trigger Co.,Ltd, is implementing the CIPITC court
ruling that it owns the Thai font PSL, said it has reached
a proper understanding with a number of printing houses
which agreed to pay subscription fee for the use of
the PSL font.
* In a market survey of pirated CD trade ahead of the
1 April crackdown, Prachachart Turakit (3-5/3) reported
brisk trade going on as usual in the Chatuchak weekend
market, Panthip Plaza, KlongThom flea market downtown
Bangkok and beyond. Cheap pirate CDs,DVDs remain popular
among both Thais and foreigners. Imports of pirated
CDs, DVDs continued in the border provinces in the north
and northeast. A number of shops surveyed offer a mixture
of both copyrighted and pirate products. Traders reported
that pirate product manufacturers may move facilities
into Burma and Laos to avoid crackdown in Thailand.
* In a letter from readers published by mass circulation
Thai Rath, a lady wrote to protest "how police
and those who claim to represent rights holder of cartoon
characters that appear in kids and adult clothes harassed
vendors who sell infringed products." The lady
claimed to be subject to a "well organized raid,
taken to an office in Sathorn Road," where those
rounded up were presented with a letter, eventually
resulting in 20,000-30,000 baht fine in order to avoid
law suit. The columnist responded that even though the
government's right in enforcing copyright, it should
not allow "lucrative loopholes" to arise in
the process of enforcement.
* DCM Wattana said he has been informed by the US Ambassador
to Thailand that the US government is practising a policy
of blacklisting landlords and owners of premises that
allow trade in pirated products, in which US businesses
would boycott such people as well as those who do not
cooperate with the US authorities in suppressing IP
infringements. High on the sanction list include the
well-known spots of pirate CD trade centres namely Pantip
Plaza, Tawanna, MBK, Future Park Rangsit, and CP (owned
by DCM Wattana's in-laws) which owns Fortune Tower,
Seri Centre and Seacon. DCM Wattana vowed to take stern
action against mall owners that ignore trade of infringed
products in their premises.
* A senior executive of one of Thailand's major rice
exporters discovered trademark infringement -- Chinese
rice wearing the jasmine rice label of his company--
while travelling to Chongqing province of China in the
Commerce Minister's delegation recently.
* DCM Wattana said he plans to present the government
's intensive campaign to eliminate piracy between 1April
to end of June and the outcome to the APEC meeting which
Thailand will host with a view to impress the US, so
that the US will remove Thailand from its IP Watch list.
He said that if his effort fails, he will ask the Prime
Minister to bring up the issue at the summit level meeting.
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