RI strengthens intellectual property laws

RI strengthens intellectual property laws

By Deborah Cameron

JAKARTA: When is a Chanel bag, a Beatles CD or an Indonesia-
English dictionary, not what it seems? The answer: When it is a
copy. And in Jakarta, fakes are for sale at traffic lights and
market stalls, or are being passed off as originals in mall
boutiques.

Part of the reason, according to the vice chairman of the
Presidential Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Bambang
Kesowo, is that there are serious shortcomings in Indonesia's
intellectual property rights law and local legal expertise.

"But now we are doing something about it," Bambang said.

Five judges from Indonesia's Supreme and District Courts are
among 18 key officials who will spend the next three months in
Australia studying Intellectual Property Rights law.

"You will become national assets in an area that is important
for the future of our country," Bambang told them as they
prepared to leave.

Legislation, administration, management, and enforcement will
be covered during the course, which has been especially designed
for Indonesia by the law faculty of the University of Technology
Sydney.

They will also meet and work with Australian judges, police,
lawyers, and senior public servants.

Indonesia has until the year 2000 to meet its obligations
under the 1995 agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS).

According to Bambang, significant legislative steps are
already being taken with laws covering patents, plant variety
rights, trade and industrial designs expected to be introduced to
the House of Representatives in the next two months.

The Australian training program is geared towards
strengthening administration, staff skills, and working
procedures.

The training is part of the Indonesia Australia Specialized
Training Project, which has received a three-year funding package
of $17.5 million from the Australian Agency for International
Development (AusAid). Earlier this year the project ran a major
conference and workshop on Intellectual Property Rights in
Jakarta.

Speaking at the opening of that conference the deputy
Ambassador for the Australian embassy, Murray Cobban described
commercial and legal regimes as "an increasingly critical
component of the process of globalization and international
competitiveness."

"Both our countries have an interest in intellectual property
regimes which are consistent with internationality agreed
standards," Cobban said.

"We believe that this project will help us all to further
enhance our understanding of these regimes and of their
applications."

The Indonesian government, recognizing the need for change,
has set up a presidential Commission on Intellectual Property
Rights and supported the efforts of Bambang Kesewo who is a key
member of the Australian-Indonesia Ministerial Forum sub-group on
intellectual property.

It was a ministerial forum initiative to organize the three-
month Australian course which will not only involve judges but
also senior police and officials from the Ministries of Justice,
Industry and Trade, Customs and Excise, Attorney General, the
Cabinet Secretariat, and the Patents Office.

The problems in Indonesia were highlighted earlier this month
when police raided a printing workshop in Jakarta and reportedly
seized copies of an illegally published English - Indonesian
dictionary which was under copyright to a university in the
United States.

But there is another side to the coin. According to Kesowo,
Indonesian companies and government officials have been
intimidated because of their lack of knowledge by big
international companies claiming ownership even after patents
have expired.

"Indonesia has to know its own rights," Kesowo said.

Intellectual Property Rights law covers the protection of
industrial property including patents, utility models, industrial
designs, trademark, service marks, trade names and indications of
source and origin. These laws protect the rights of creative
workers in literary, artistic, industrial and scientific fields
which can be protected by copyright, trade marks and patents.

"In many areas Indonesia law does not fulfill its obligations
or there is no real experience in putting the laws into effect,"
the in-country manager of AusAID's Indonesia-Australia Specialist
Training Project, Rosalina Syahriar said.

According to Associate Professor Philip Griffith of the
University of Technology Sydney, there is only so much that can
be achieved by heaping the goods up in one place and starting a
bonfire.

"What countries need is a legal framework," Prof. Griffith
said.

"It is a well known and worldwide phenomena that developing
countries have little respect for intellectual property laws," he
said.

Prof. Griffith said that Indonesia had realized that the
protection of intellectual property was important as countries
moved towards the era of global trade and deregulated markets.

"The recognition of intellectual property is as important to
international trade as a good water supply - it gives a basic
comfort level," Prof. Griffith said.

Human resources development has been identified as an area of
need by the Indonesian government and is a high priority for
AusAid. Australia annually contributes about $30 million - around
30 percent of its aid - to education and training programs
involving Indonesians.

Deborah Cameron is publicity officer for the Australian Agency
for International Development (AusAID).

-- AusAID