Pentel wins battle for trademark ownership
JAKARTA (JP): Pentel Co. Ltd., a major producer of stationery goods in Tokyo, has won a 58-month legal battle for recognition as the sole legal ownership of its Pentel trademark in Indonesia.
The Supreme Court decided to approve Pentel's appeal against the February, 1990, decision by the Central Jakarta District Court which reconfirmed the registration of Pentel trademark in Indonesia in the name of Widyahadi Lim.
The recent judgment has been praised by intellectual rights consultants here.
"This firm action on the part of the Supreme Court will surely improve the international confidence in Indonesia's ability to protect intellectual property rights," Noboro Watabe, Pentel's general manager from Tokyo noted here yesterday.
Rizawanto Winata, a trademark lawyer from the S.Gautama & Associates law firm who represented Pentel in the litigation process, said the Supreme Court's decision of Dec.17, 1993, canceled the Central Jakarta District Court's judgment of Feb.2, 1989. That judgment reconfirmed Lim as the legitimate sole owner of Pentel trademark for correction pens.
The Supreme Court declared the Oct. 10, 1987 registration of Pentel trademark in the name of Lim at the Patent and Trademark Office null and void.
Rightful owner
It also decreed that Pentel Co. Ltd, which registered the Patent trademark in Indonesia for all stationery products included in Class 16 under the old trademark law of 1961 on Sept.13, 1976, is the rightful owner of Pentel trademark for all kinds of pens, writing materials, crayon, water paints and painting instruments.
The old law was replaced by a new trademark law in April, 1993 which outrightly bans the registration of trademarks already famous in the country and overseas.
The Supreme Court judged that the Pentel trademark which was registered by Lim for correction pens at the Patent and Trademark Office in 1987 was very similar to the one earlier registered by Pentel Co. in 1976.
The appellants argued that Lim had assigned a company in Surabaya, PT Perkasa Utama Ju, to produce correction pens bearing his Pentel trademark.
Watabe said the containers and trademarks used by PT Perkasa Utama were very similar to those used by the original Pentel correction pens made in Japan that the "initiation" products had misled the consumers.
"Moreover, local Pentel correction pens have been sold 50 percent cheaper than our own products even though our quality is much better," Watabe added.
He said his company had lost millions of dollars as a result of the sales of what he called imitation Pentel correction pen.
The Central Jakarta District Court decided to reject Pentel's legal case against Lim in 1989 on the grounds that the Pentel trademark registration of 1976 did not specifically stipulate correction pen.
However, the Supreme Court supported the appellants' argument that registration for Class-16 goods, on the basis of the old trademark law of 1961, had covered all kinds of pens, writing materials. crayons, pastels, water paints, painting instruments. (vin)