Destruction of infringing goods by Thai Customs Department

The Customs Department in collaboration with the Department of Intellectual Property, the Economic Crime Suppression Division (ECD) of the Royal Thai Police, the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) of the Royal Thai Police, and the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) held a destruction ceremony of infringing goods on 19 June 2023 at the Customs Department. Our LEXEL team has been invited to attend the destruction ceremony to witness the destruction of infringing products.

There are 1,295,875 items of infringing goods to be destroyed in this ceremony which were infringing goods seized during Customs interceptions at various Customs ports by Customs officials, and those seized during police raid actions by ECD and CCIB police. The total value of the infringing goods was around 57 million Baht (around 1.67 million USD). The infringing goods will be strictly secured and guarded by the officials to be shredded, crushed, and burned at the incineration facilities in environmentally friendly manner on 19 – 22 June 2023 which the Thai government absorbed all costs related to the destruction ceremony.

In general, the destruction ceremony shall be annually held around 1 – 2 times. This ceremony reflects the continued effort of the Thai government in taking serious action against infringing goods from the Thai market. At the same time, such act helps protecting the consumers’ health from unsafe and poor-quality goods. To carry on cracking down of IP enforcement activities to protect the consumers’ health, holding a destruction ceremony in a public manner should cause the involved persons of infringing goods to be aware and re-think on getting involved in infringing activities.

Authors: Praewpan Hinchiranan (Am) / Thaniya Anuchitolarn