New approach to counterfeit goods

by Joseph Boy

Prompt after the appearance of the story over Copyright pirates follows a message from the Economic and Cyber ​​Crime Division of the Thai police. Starting this month, this department will tackle brand piracy. Would people have read the relevant article on Thailandblog and are now going to take measures?

According to their own words, people are alert, but all in all, this has so far done little and fake trade is rampant. In 2009, 2757 arrests were made against violators of trademark and patent law. This year, until last month, 1692 arrests have been made that would have caused damage to the brands in question for a trillion baht. Bulldozers destroyed another 600 thousand in September counterfeit items. A number that gives some insight into the size of this trade because the seizure is only a drop in the well-known glowing plate.

Another approach

This time, the special police brigade wants to take a different approach and no longer prosecute the relatively small resellers at the well-known outlets such as MBK and Pantip Plaza in Bangkok or Tukcom in Pattaya. No, they look for the source; the manufacturers and major distributors. Whether these counterfeiters are easy to detect is doubtful. Perhaps they are somewhat smarter than the relevant police brigade.

Close your eyes

In the past, the police have all too often turned a blind eye to resellers. Actions were always carried out at the same time and, of course, the counterfeit items had disappeared from sight.

The announcement that this time the sellers will be left untouched says enough. If there are no more sellers, you would think that trade would stop by itself. To date, the fake branded goods are in the open and exposed Thailand available and trade provides an income for many. Although people claim to use the so-called US Priority Watch List of trademark and patent law, many think otherwise.

Damage amounts

In my opinion, you should not take the huge losses that the brand manufacturers claim to incur due to the counterfeit trade with a grain of salt, but with a grain of salt. How many buyers of a fake Rolex would actually buy a real one? And doesn't that also apply to many of certain rather heavily priced brands? Status, that is the purchase motive of the genuine brand items that many do not want or cannot open their wallets for. You could even say that the manufacturer of the branded item benefits from the fake version, because the brand gets a lot of free publicity as a result. True or False? Perhaps a nice case for a graduation project.