Entrepreneurs asked to renew trademarks
Entrepreneurs asked to renew trademarks
JAKARTA (JP): Director General of Copyrights, Patents, and
Trademarks S. Kayatmo said yesterday he had given entrepreneurs
three months to renew their trademarks, as required by a new
regulation.
The government instruction, effective as of Feb. 1 states that
all trademark renewal applications should be supported with a
statement from the authority in charge of the relevant business
sector certifying that the marks are being used.
The new regulation has sparked controversy with critics saying
it lacked adequate legal basis because it was inconsistent with
the 1992 law on marks.
Lawyer J.B. Lumenta of Amroos Law Consultants said the policy
was prejudicial to trademark owners and to Indonesia's image as a
member of the Geneva-based World Trade Organization.
Indonesia is a party to the GATT Agreement on Trade Related
Intellectual Property Rights.
Lumenta said Article 10, section three of the law stressed the
advance stipulation related to the trademark was regulated under
the government regulation not the director general's instruction.
According to the lawyer, Article 8 of Government Regulation
No. 23/1993 on the procedure for the application of trademark
registrations, applications for the renewal of trademark
registration must be accompanied by a declaration that the
trademark is still being used.
Lumenta said the regulation stated that the declaration could
be submitted or made by the trademark owner or be issued by the
authority in charge of the relevant business.
"It should be an alternative, but the instruction has changed
it into an obligation.
"Why did the director general did not propose changing the
government regulation?," asked Lumenta.
The instruction also requires that applicants should give the
full name of the intended marks in case they use abbreviations or
their Indonesian translations.
"In contrast, article 10 section two of the law does not
require the meaning, it only requires a translation of trademarks
which use a foreign language, especially those which consist of
non-Latin letters or numerals which are unusual in Indonesia,"
Lumenta said.
Reacting to the criticism, Kayatmo said, "Why do lawyers only
question the government regulation but fail to discuss the law on
which the instruction is based?"
Kayatmo said the directorate general was ready to help
trademark owners if they had difficulties translating their marks
into Indonesian.
"All that will be needed is a dictionary. So what's the
problem?" he asked.
He also denied reports that 200 trademark owners had lost
their rights after the new requirement was imposed.
"What happened was that we sent the application documents back
to be submitted with more documents as required by the new
regulation." (05)