Commerce Ministry expects Thailand to be delisted from US’s PWL this month

BANGKOK, April 14 (TNA) -- The Commerce Ministry hopes the United States will remove Thailand from its Priority Watch List late this month due to serious efforts against pirate products. Thosapone Dansuputra, director-general of the Intellectual Property Department, said he expected the US’s better ranking of Thailand concerning PWL to be reviewed late this month regarding Thailand’s intellectual property protection and relevant legal amendments after it had been kept in the list for nine years. If Thailand remains in the list, it will deserve a sound reason from the US, he said. Mr Thosapone did not think the PWL revision would have anything to do with the US’s efforts to solve its trade deficit with particular countries. In the past nine years, government and private organisations in Thailand joined forces to tackle violation to intellectual property and encourage Thai people to respect it, he said. Legal cases were finalized for more than 3 million items of pirate products weighing about 300 tons with the estimated intellectual property damage worth 1.76 billion baht. That showed the satisfactory suppression of pirate products, Mr Thosapone said. However, he admitted that violation to intellectual property was expanding via the internet. The government was tackling such online offences and needed cooperation from the private sector to support its actions, Mr Thosapone said. Without a complaint from a damaged party, officials could be accused of unfair treatment, he said. (TNA)