Pentel wins battle for trademark ownership
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)