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