BANGKOK, April 24 –The head of Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property said the United States is likely to announce by the end of this month that Thailand, among other countries, will remain on its Priority Watch List (PWL) for another year.
Director-General Patchima Thanasanti said although Thailand has continously campaigned and acted against the infringement of intellectual property, the United States views that the problem has not declined for the past five years and that Thailand has no serious law to protect intellectual property.
Her department is trying to legalise the copyrights and trademarks law as soon as possible, while the government is trying to push such law into enforcement.
Ms Patchima said the law on intellectual property should be enforced by 2014, particularly violations of software and movie piracy. Once the law is put in place, the United States might delist Thailand from PWL to the less-stringent Watch List (WL) category instead.
Meanwhile, the agency head said Deputy Commerce Minister Poom Sarapol had assigned her department to revise measures and take serious action against department stores allowing retailers to sell pirated items on their premises.
The Intellectual Property Department is organising an ‘IP Fair 2012’ May 4-6 at Bangkok’s Queen Sirikit National Convention Center to intensify the fight against the intellectual piracy issue, and to encourage and provide opportunities to inventors and intellectual property rights owners to meet and negotiate business with industrial entrepreneurs for further commercial gain from their goods and ideas.
