DGIP statistics for 2013-14

The Directorate-General of Intellectual Property has published filing statistics for 2013 and 2014, and it’s not good news - downward trends across the board.

In 2013 (see here), despite Indonesia’s relatively strong economic performance, we only saw:

• 62,949 trademark applications filed in 2013, a slight increase of 494 or 0.7% on 2012 numbers (62,455);
• 7,785 patent applications filed in 2013, a modest increase of 753 or 10.7% on 2012 numbers (7.032); and
• 4,258 industrial design applications filed in 2013, a decrease of 354 or 7.7% on 2012 numbers (4,612).

The numbers for 2014 (see here) reveal that the downward trend has continued.  The published data covers January to September only - a comparison of the data with the first 9 months of 2013 reveals:

• 44,596 trademark applications were filed in Jan to Sep 2014, compared with 46,494 for the same period in 2013 - a decrease of 1,898 or 4.1%;
• 5,908 patent applications were filed in Jan to Sep 2014, compared with 5,511 for the same period in 2013 - an increase of 397 or 7.2%; and
• 2,743 industrial design applications were filed in Jan to Sep 2014, compared with 3,296 for the same period in 2013 - a decrease of 553 or 16.8%.

In comparison, statistics for 2012 were much more encouraging and reflective of Indonesia’s booming consumer culture (see our post here).  So what has been happening since?!  The numbers that have been made available so far don’t offer much insight.  We expect to receive more detail in the coming months, that should provide some clues - breakdowns of domestic and international filings, for example.

ProLegNas 2015

The House of Representatives has finalised the National Legislation Program (ProLegNas) for 2015.

The list of new laws to be debated by the House of Representatives was finalised on Monday (9 February 2015).  This year’s program has come later than expected - it was hoped that a program would be set in the first session of the House in December 2014, but political squabbles between the new President Joko Widodo’s Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and rival Great Indonesia Coalition  proved to be too much of a distraction (see Jakarta Post article here).

There are two intellectual property laws in the 2015 National Legislation Program - a new Trademark Law (#11 on the list), and a new Patent Law (#12 on the list).  There is also a revision to the Anti-Monopoly and Unfair Competition Law (#20 on the list) which we will watch with keen interest.  A complete list is available here.

We do expect that the Trademark Law will be passed this year, as Indonesia has committed to introducing the Madrid Protocol by 31 December 2015 (ahead of the introduction of the ASEAN Economic Community).  We also hope to see the patent and unfair competitions laws passed - the fact that they are on the list suggests that they will at least receive attention.  So far, the new government does appear to be delivering on its commitment to developing Indonesia’s creative economy, part of which involves strengthening the supporting legal infrastructure.

Copyright - new Collective Management Body

The Minister of Law and Human Rights (Yasona Laoly) has established the Collective Management Body (Lembaga Manajemen Kolektif Nasional), which is tasked with collecting music royalties in Indonesia.

Rhoma Irama - famous for his popular 'dangdut’ songs, and for dipping his toes in politics in Jakarta last governatorial election - has been appointed as a Commissioner (see Jakarta Post story here).  So too have eight others (see DGIP press release here).  The Commissioners have been tasked with administering the Collective Management Body and supervising the collection of royalties from entertainment venues - including from karaoke lounges, hotels, and television stations.

Up until now, the collection of royalties has been very loosely policed, if at all.  One example of positive action was last year’s criminal action against five major karaoke chains (see here).  The move to tighten things up is a welcome one, and evidence that Indonesia’s new government does appear to be serious about developing the country’s creative economy.

(The Director-General of Intellectual Property, 

and the new Collective Management Body Commissioners)

Online resources

The Directorate-General of Intellectual Property (“DGIP”) has been busy improving its online services, with the introduction of several useful tools.

Reviewing the classification of goods and services in trademark applications has been aided by the introduction of an online classification tool - see here.  Indonesia follows the 10th edition of the Nice classification system, but is not a Nice member country.  In practice there are some classification practices that are unique to Indonesia, and the Trademark Office does not publish examination guidelines.  For this reason IP Consultants (patent/trademark attorneys) often attend at the Trademark Office to consult with classification examiners before filing an application.  Now, some of that work can be done by checking the online classification tool, which sets out both the Nice class heading for each class as well as a fairly comprehensive list of goods/services that the Trademark Office will accept.

The DGIP has published both Indonesian and English guides to registering Geographical Indications (“GIs”).  GIs are popular in Indonesia, seen as one way to help domestic businesses thrive (and rightly so).  It’s not every day that a GI is granted, though, there being only around 25 so far (see our post here).  These online guides should help applicants and IP Consultants alike understand the applicable procedures.

Although not strictly a DGIP resource, the DGIP has been working with WIPO on the WIPO Global Brand Database, which has apparently been up and running since 23 January 2015.  Although it is still early days, the database is a hot topic, as it promises to provide details of all trademarks that have been inputted to the Trademark Office’s internal database (IPAS).  If this is true, it is a quantum leap forward.  Up until know, we have been able to access two resources: an online database that only includes registrations and is not completely updated; and the Trademark Office's internal database.  The later has been the only resource suitable for clearance search purposes, and can only be searched at the Trademark Office - resulting in inconvenience and inefficiency.  The new database also introduces new search features, including normal, fuzzy, phonetic and stemming searches, as well as device searches (though it is not yet clear how effective these will be).  We understand that the database is updated weekly by Trademark Office IT staff.  A socialisation session will be held soon for IP Consultants.

We’ve separately commented on another third party resource, ASEAN TM View, here.

These are all smart moves.  The DGIP needs to streamline its services to cope with the ever increasing number of applications it processes each year.  Establishing online services should serve to reduce the number of consultations that take place, and free up time for examiners to focus on other work.