An organisation tasked with protecting and cataloguing Indonesia’s batik designs - the Indonesia Ethnic Designers Forum (Fodei) - was formed in Jakarta last month.
According to a Jakarta Globe article (see here), Fodei will arrange seminars on the philosophies behind traditional batik motifs, and will "catalogue the country’s ethnic patterns and patent them”. Ignoring the unfortunate reference to patent rights (mistaken references to patent rights have, ironically enough, been been complained about in the Jakarta Globe before - see here), if Fodei is able to promote registration of copyright in new designs and the cataloguing of traditional designs, this will serve to strengthen Indonesia’s claims over batik.
Batik has been identified as a piece of Indonesia’s intangible cultural heritage by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, but is periodically the subject of disputes with Malaysia which also claims batik as part of its cultural heritage (see here, for example).
(Nidya and Andy wearing batik)