Govt vows action on intellectual property rights
Govt vows action on intellectual property rights
JAKARTA (JP): The government will step up its campaign
against violations of intellectual property rights and will try
to increase public awareness of the importance of the issue,
Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono said yesterday.
Moerdiono said the government would mount raids against those
involved in intellectual piracy, give harsher sentences to the
pirates and make every effort to prevent the importation of
pirated products.
Moerdiono was speaking after a meeting between Attorney
General Singgih, Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman and Police
Chief Gen. Banurusman, in which they evaluated the protection of
intellectual property rights in Indonesia.
The minister said that, so far, penalties against violators of
copyright had been very lenient. "We will get tougher against
them," he said.
He said that the escalation of the campaign had nothing to do
with the accusations made by "a certain country" against
Indonesia. "It is merely domestic law enforcement," he said.
Indonesia has been said to be the next target of the United
States' anti-copyright piracy campaign, after its Trade
Representatives succeeded in their campaign against violations of
copyrights, patents and trademarks in China.
A computer software manufacturer in the U.S. has also
reportedly lobbied its government to investigate allegations that
Indonesia had become a haven for pirated computer software.
Moerdiono admitted yesterday that the authorities were facing
difficulties in their anti-piracy drive because of a lack of law
enforcement resources.
Complex
"The problem is complex and intellectual property rights are a
new issue here," he said.
Moerdiono said that the Directorate of Patents of the Ministry
of Justice had received 10,000 applications for patents but that,
so far, only 178 had been processed. Indonesia passed the Patent
Act in 1989.
"This shows that the ability of our staff to judge whether a
patent deserves protection or not is still very limited,"
Moerdiono said.
He said that the directorate had received about 32,000
applications for trademark registration, 5,000 applications for
service trademark registration and thousands of applications for
trademark extensions.
Moerdiono said that, of that number, only 26,000 applications
had been processed.
The minister said the government would work hard to increase
the quality and size of the directorate's personnel.
"The implementation of intellectual property rights is
important for this country because it will help boost human
resources development," he said. (tis)