Govt develops database on patent information

JAKARTA (JP): The government, with the assistance of American computer software giant Microsoft, is currently developing a database on products patented in the country which is expected to improve the processing as well as protection of patent rights.

Sunaryati Haryono, the chief of the Agency for National Legal Development, which is under the Ministry of Justice, told reporters yesterday that the database should be completed before next April, the start of the 1996/1997 fiscal year.

Currently, anyone wishing to obtain information on patented inventions must go to the agency's headquarters.

With the database system, the information will be available at all provincial offices of the Ministry of Justice and even a few other government agencies, Sunaryati said.

One chief advantage is that it would prevent two products registering for the same patent rights, she added.

The database system uses the Microsoft SQL Single Server for image tracking and Microsoft Visual Basic for the system application, according to an executive of PT Infotek Mitrasejati, the local representative of the Microsoft Corporation.

Infotek beat six other companies who bid for the project.

Shuk Kwan Chan, Microsoft's Technical Marketing Manager for the Asia Pacific Region, guaranteed that the system would not be outdated even though technology constantly changes.

"Future database systems by Microsoft will always be developed with backward compatibility. You have nothing to worry about because your investment is protected with the our product compatibility," he told the same media briefing.

Ana Sukanto, head of the Report and Programming Department of the Directorate General of Copy Rights, Patent and Trademarks, said there are currently 70 patented inventions already recorded in the database, while some 1,000 inventions are still in the process of obtaining patent rights. (imn)