Destruction Ceremony Of Infringing Goods for 2019

On 12 September 2019, the official destruction ceremony of infringing products was held by various government agencies including the Department of Intellectual Property, the Customs Department and the Royal Thai Police to destroy the counterfeits and pirated products seized in the infringement cases by the Customs Officials and the Police Officials.

There were approximately 10 million pieces destroyed, including around 251,019 items seized by the Royal Thai Police, 9,818,358 items seized by the Customs Department and 551,448 items seized by the Department of Special Investigations.  The estimated value of the goods destroyed in this ceremony was around Baht 550 million.  There were various types of goods destroyed, ranging from consumer goods like clothes, shoes, bags, watches, toys, mobile phones and cosmetics to luxury items and automobile parts.

Under the current laws of Thailand, there is no express requirement that all the seized goods must definitely be destroyed.  However, under the current policy and practice of the relevant government authorities in Thailand, infringing products are destroyed rather than being disposed of by other means, e.g. donation.  This is to make sure that all infringing products are removed from all channels of commerce and will never be in the market again.  Moreover, the destruction ceremony is to demonstrate the government agencies’ efforts against counterfeiting and piracy, as well as to  raise awareness among  consumers and the general public on the protection of intellectual property rights in the Kingdom of Thailand .