The Commerce Ministry has dealt a major blow to Panlop Thongsuk, who claimed the commercial rights to more than 145 Thai-language fonts in a widely used computer program called "PSL", by ruling that Thai fonts are not protected by law. Panlop took legal action against numerous printing houses in Thailand during the past month, claiming they used his fonts without permission.
His legal action raised doubts in the printing industry about the ownership and protection of 145 Thai fonts widely used by printing houses and on millions of personal computers in Thailand. These doubts were put to rest yesterday when Newin Chidchob, deputy commerce minister, said at a seminar on Thai fonts that the creativity employed to develop them was not protected by law.