Harsher penalties needed to protect creative rights

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Justice and Human Rights Baharuddin Lopa said on Monday that intellectual property rights issues are only understood by certain groups of people.

Economic advantage, he added, is not necessarily related to an understanding of the subject, as many people from middle to upper classes remain unaware of it.

"As if property rights are limited to certain people. They're actually for everyone," he said when opening a two-day seminar held to mark International Property Rights Day, which falls on April 26.

He added that promotion is the key to improving people's knowledge and awareness of the rights.

"Through this seminar, I hope awareness can be increased. This seminar will hopefully encourage new inventions," Lopa added.

The ministry's Director General for Intellectual Property Rights, A. Zen Umar Purba, was more positive about social awareness, claiming that the public's knowledge of intellectual property rights had been developed.

Purba explained that there have been 22,000 copyright registrations since 1993 and some 25,000 patent rights registrations over the same period.

The government has collected around Rp 22 billion (US$2 million) from the registrations, he added.

"It indicates that intellectual property rights procedures in Indonesia have been implemented well," Purba asserted.

He added that the system does not only cover copyright, trademarks and patents, but also industrial design, integrated circuit space design and trade confidentiality, the bills for which were passed by the House of Representatives in December.

The House is now working on revision of the 1997 Law on Copyright, Patents and Trademarks.

Goeswono Soepardi, who is a professor at the School of Agriculture Technology in Surabaya's Widya Mandala University, noted that Indonesia produces very few inventions compared to other countries.

Data compiled by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) revealed that there were only 75 local patents registered in 1994.

The number was too small compared to foreign inventions registered in Indonesia during the same period, which stood at a staggering 2,307.

"We even lag behind Malaysia, which recorded 223 local registrations and 3,364 foreign registrations, while their population is much lower than this country," he said.

Law enforcement

Meanwhile, Purba denied allegations that the government had been too lenient in upholding the law to protect intellectual property rights. Instead, he blamed the poor enforcement of national laws for the rampant property rights violations.

"The legal enforcement of copyright ownership is an inseparable part of the entire legal system," he said.

Earlier, Purba pointed to the penalties for copyright violations, which he said were unsatisfactory and contributed to rampant infringements.

He referred to the 1987 Law on Copyright which carries a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment and/or a Rp 100 million (US$10,000) fine for copyright violations.

Many observers say that the punishment is too light because professional counterfeiters can pass bribes worth hundreds of millions of rupiah to law enforcers in order to avoid legal action.

According to Purba, different punishments were a result of different perceptions of upholding the law.

"There is still confusion about proper punishment against copyright violations. Many small vendors earn their living from the sale of pirated (audio, visual or digital) products," he told the seminar.

As for copyright violations, Purba said that cases of piracy in the country were not that many compared to China, which suffers the largest revenue losses from piracy, estimated at $1 billion in 1999.

Malaysia suffered an estimated $260 million in losses, while Indonesia was estimated to suffer $186 million in losses.

However, Purba said, law enforcement must be improved to protect inventors and creators, and encourage others to create.(hdn)