BANGKOK – Director-General of Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property Nuntawan Sakuntanaga has disclosed that the Royal Thai Police, the Customs Department and the Department of Special Investigations together conducted 5,913 arrests and confiscated 2.9 million pieces of pirated goods during the months of January and August.
According to the Director-General, although this year’s numbers accounted for a 17.4 percent decline in arrests, the number of confiscated items increased by 184 percent. Over 90 percent of the arrests were made by the Royal Thai Police.
Mrs Nuntawan said the majority of pirated goods were produced outside the country. Meanwhile, the Customs Department has confiscated over 1.4 million items so far this year as a result of its recent policy on strictly inspecting goods coming into Thailand via all possible channels. In addition, the number of pirated goods sold in the country has decreased due to recent crackdowns by the Department of Special Investigations, which has confiscated over 660,000 items so far.
The Department of Intellectual Property itself has worked in hand with the Economic Crime Suppression Division and the private sector, conducting 351 arrests and confiscated over 42,000 items throughout the country. However, the recent challenge has been the tendency by sellers to offer their items for sale online. The Department of Intellectual Property will continue to work with related authorities to crackdown on pirated goods on all fronts, the Director-General added.
