Thai authorities seize over 2.9 million pieces of pirated goods this year

[webfact]

Authorities seize over 2.9 million pieces of pirated goods this year

BANGKOK, 22 October 2015 (NNT) - 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.

-- NNT 2015-10-22

[Gunna]

" the number of confiscated items increased by 184 percent "

The General should have told RTP to confiscate more, time for a change. 55555

[clockman]

Meanwhile in the real world, business as usual!

[MockingJay]

"Authorities seize over 2.9 million pieces of pirated goods this year"... and sold them back to the vendors for...?????

[SOTIRIOS]

....considering the population......number of shops.....tourists.....this is probably not even 10%.....

[fred Kubasa]

The problem with these confiscations is they destroy the items like 1000

T-shirts that some people sorely need. They could sell them at 80 % off,

described as fakes or just give them away but Thai authorities just love to

destroy !........ except for the items officers take home !

[Ulic]

Focus limited recourses on counterfeit drugs. The rest is just money and the big corporations

make enough having moved manufacturing to China/Thailand/Vietnam and Cambodia to name

a few countries. If the big names like Nike, Adidas, Louis Vuitton, Burberry etc want to better

slow down counterfeiting they should move manufacturing back to North America and Europe

where they there products originated and where selling there products make them the big dollars.

They should quit complaining about counterfeiting, it has grown because of there decisions to

move manufacturing to Asia to increase profits. They should just write this of as a cost of their

business decisions. Bo-hoo, They just want there cake, and to eat it too. I have no sympathy.

[Ulic]

The Thai government should pay these type of investigations lip service at most and

focus on counterfeit drugs where the real danger and cost is.

[anon467848]

confiscated 2.9 million pieces of pirated goods during the months of January and August.

The story would have a greater impact if we knew the value of the confiscated goods.

[Guitar God]

Arrrr!

[mikebell]

My wife used to sell counterfeit shirts - not her shop. Most months the BIB came in & selected their free samples. Occasionally she was arrested & the owner had to 'bail' her out.

[arthurboy]

But not, it would seem, the fake dvds on sale outside the 7-11 on Phayonyothin near the big K. Bank.

Would this have anything to do with the police, who I have seen, taking money and free films from the vendors?

[DLock]

Authorities seize over 2.9 million pieces of pirated goods this year

Considering there is 29 million tourists (at last count), and most will buy a copy T-shirt, couple of CD's, bag, shoes, watch or sunglasses (either knowingly or unknowingly), this 2.9 million pieces probably represents less than 5% of all pirated goods sold in Thailand....barely a dent.

And that's just the tourist purchasing power. Thai's also consume a lot of copy stuff, so this could be less than 1% of all pirate stuff sold in Thailand.

Please try harder. Fail.