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.