RI plans greater intellectual property rights protection
RI plans greater intellectual property rights protection
By T. Sima Gunawan
JAKARTA (JP): A revised copyright law, scheduled to be
completed this year, will acknowledge not only copyrights but
also so-called "neighboring rights" as well as other related
rights which are not covered in the 1987 Copyright Law.
Director General for Copyrights, Patents and Trademarks Nico
Kansil said yesterday that the revised law will provide added
legal protection to composers, performers, producers and
broadcasters.
"It will also regulate rental rights in cinematographic
works," Nico told The Jakarta Post.
Indonesia is working on the revisions of the three laws on
copyrights, patents and trademarks, in line with the Trade
Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
agreement, which took effect on Jan. 1. Indonesia and other
developing countries, however, have five years to adjust their
laws accordingly.
Nico said that the amended copyright law, to be completed this
year, would extend the length of legal protection for copyrights
in computer programs from 25 years to 50 years.
The rights for patent holders will also be extended to 20
years. Under the 1989 Patent Act, the inventor is entitled to
14 years of legal protection, which can be extended to another
two years.
"The revision of the 1992 trademark law will deal with, among
other things, geographical indications, the indication of source
and the appellation of origin," Nico said.
In accordance with the TRIPS agreement, Indonesia will also
draft new laws on industrial design, integrated circuits and
trade secrets, which are scheduled to be completed some time in
1996.
"In the meantime, we will continue to hold campaigns to
improve the awareness of the public, business people as well as
law enforcers in the field of intellectual property rights," Nico
said.
Nico, who was accompanied by director of copyrights, Sufjan
Suradimadja, expressed concerns over the light sentences meted
out by judges who tried intellectual property rights cases.
He called on judges, as well as others in the legal field, to
show "more responsibility", especially now that Indonesia has
signed the GATT treaty.
"They should understand the consequences of signing the
agreement," Nico said.
He acknowledged that there were still rampant copyright
violations in the area of computer software. In this case, he
suggested that the Indonesian Computer Software Association play
a more active role in eliminating the offense.
The Washington DC-based International Intellectual Property
Alliance claims that U.S.-based companies suffered US$154 million
in property rights violations, due to piracy of computer programs
($92 million), motion pictures ($10 million), audio recordings
and musical compositions ($12 million) and books ($40 million) in
1994.
Watch list
Earlier this year, the alliance, as well as the U.S-based
Information Technology Council, recommended that the U.S. Trade
Representatives move Indonesia from the USTR watch list to its
priority list.
"You can't compare Indonesia with the United States, which is
established," Nico said. "We are different but we are striving to
improve things."
"I hope they will understand and turn down the recommendation
to place us on the priority list," he added.
During the past six years, Indonesia has been on the U.S.
watch list for a lack of intellectual property right protection.
Nico said there are 389 employees, including 37 patent
examiners, in his office, while ideally there should be between
500 and 600 employees. Nico said that the office needs between 75
and 100 patent examiners to handle the huge number of patent
applications.
Since the Patent Act took into effect on Aug. 1, 1991, the
office has registered about 10,000 patent applications. Most of
them are still in the process.