RI still novice on intellectual property rights

RI still novice on intellectual property rights

JAKARTA (JP): If foreigners keep on pressing Indonesia about
its failure to adequately protect intellectual property rights,
that is largely because Indonesia is still a novice when it comes
to the concept, a government official said yesterday.

Bambang Kesowo, an aide to Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono,
said at a seminar on intellectual property rights that, even
among people involved in the law and its enforcement, knowledge
of the subject is still poor.

"The knowledge of the law enforcement officers and legal
practitioners is deplorable and that is because the subject is
not taught at law schools," said Bambang, who was a member of the
presidential team that drafted Indonesia's copyright law.

The one-day seminar was held to mark the 50th anniversary of
the Attorney General's Office, which jointly organized the event
with Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia, the Business Software
Alliance and the Suara Pembaruan daily.

Indonesia tightened its copyrights legislation in 1987,
following strong criticisms from industrialized countries.

More recently, United States officials named Indonesia as one
of their next targets as Washington intensifies its campaign to
compel developing countries to provide better protection for
American-registered intellectual property rights. Washington has
already secured greater cooperation from China, after threatening
to withdraw some trade privileges.

Despite the 1987 legislation, complaints that Indonesia has
failed to properly enforce the law and that there are ongoing
violations of copyrights have continued.

The government is currently drafting amendments to the 1987
copyright law to comply with some of the terms in the new General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

Director General of Copyrights, Patents, and Trademarks Nico
Kansil said yesterday that intellectual property rights would
have to receive proper protection if Indonesia wanted to improve
its foreign trade.

"Proper implementation of copyrights will enhance the quality
of locally-made products for export, thereby boosting the image
of Indonesia's national industry in the world," Nico said.

Nico also emphasized the importance of improving the knowledge
of intellectual property law for judges, prosecutors, lawyers,
police officers, students and the general public. He said this
could be achieved through education programs including public
seminars.

"The new (copyrights) law will, among other things, protect
industrial designs and trade secrets", he added.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Training and Education Center
of the Justice Ministry, Rasmin Saleh, said that the nature of
copyrights violations in Indonesia had changed.

While in the 1980s most violations were in relation to music
recordings, such infringements now represent only 15 percent of
total violations, he said. These days the government needs to
clamp down on copyright violations of computer software, he said.

Rasmin said that education regarding intellectual property
rights was one way to cope with the piracy problem. "In this
case, we need to cooperate with other nations and international
organizations, such as the U.S.-based Business Software Alliance,
regarding training programs," he said. (03).