The Directorate-General of Intellectual Property (“DGIP”) recently held a public consultation on the introduction of the Madrid Protocol and Lisbon Agreement.
According to the DGIP website, around 50 DGIP officers and IP Consultants attended the event, which was hosted on 10 April 2014 in Jakarta.
(this picture, taken from the DGIP website, shows attendees including the Director-General of Intellectual Property Ahmad M.Ramli (centre-right))
Among Indonesian IP Consultants, there are mixed views on how the introduction of the Madrid Protocol will affect the profession. Capacity to process an expected increase in numbers of applications at the DGIP is being questioned, and private practices are bracing for a decline in numbers of locally filed applications (see our post here).
We will only see the introduction of these new systems if implementing regulations are put in place. Historically there have been significant delays with the introduction of intellectual property laws and regulations. One explanation for this is that the Indonesian legislature has more immediate concerns to deal with - health, education, infrastructure, etc. However, introduction of the Madrid Protocol is part of Indonesia’s commitment to ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) harmonisation in 2015.
The consensus view is that, ready or not, we will likely see the introduction of the Madrid Protocol in 2015.