Thailand: Destruction of infringing goods

The Department of Intellectual Property held an annual destruction ceremony of intellectual property infringing goods on 31 August 2023 at the Army Air Defense Command. The participants in the destruction ceremony to witness the destruction of infringing products include the representatives from the Internal Security Operations Command, the Royal Thai Police, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, the Customs Department, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), the Public Relations Department, the Anti-Money Laundering Office, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission, and private sector. Our LEXEL team has been invited to attend the destruction ceremony.

There are 1,253,529 items of infringing goods (including clothing, bags, watches, cosmetics, auto parts, etc.) being destroyed in this ceremony which were infringing goods from the final cases rendered by the courts which were seized during raid actions by police and DSI officials, and Customs interceptions at various Customs ports by Customs officials. The total value of the infringing goods was more than 600 million Baht (around 17 million USD).

The destruction ceremony provides the continued effort of the Thai government in taking serious action against intellectual property infringing goods from the Thai market to protect the consumers’ health from unsafe and poor-quality goods, and in an effort to step away from the United States Trade Representatives’ (USTR) Watch List. The destruction ceremony should cause the awareness to the involved persons on getting involved in intellectual property infringing activities and infringing goods.

Authors: Praewpan Hinchiranan (Am) / Thaniya Anuchitolarn