Yonex regains its brand name in Indonesia

Yonex regains its brand name in Indonesia

JAKARTA (JP): Yonex Kabushiki Kaisha, a major Japanese
manufacturer of Yonex rackets, sports shoes and sportswear, has
regained its well-known brand name in the country after six years
of judicial fights against local trader Rabinder Singh of Toko
Seth.

James.B. Lumenta of Amroos Law Consultants, which represents
the Japanese company, said yesterday the Dec. 15, 1992 judgment
of the district court and the Feb. 28, 1995 decision of the
Supreme Court in favor of Yonex demonstrated the government's
determination to protect intellectual property rights.

"The court judgments clearly show that we are not only good at
making laws but also at enforcing them," Lumenta noted.

Alleged inadequate protection of intellectual property rights
was cited by around 100 foreign and Indonesian businesspeople
attending the Economist Conferences' Roundtable with the
Indonesian government as one of the biggest hurdles to foreign
investments in the country.

Participants in the three-day meeting, which ended on Tuesday
and which was closed to the mass media, were generally impressed
with the speed at which the Indonesian government has amended its
laws on intellectual property rights.

Most of the businesspeople, however, were dissatisfied with
what they saw as the utterly weak enforcement of the laws on
patents, copyrights and trademarks.

Late last month, the U.S. based Business Software Alliance
also accused Indonesia of being a hot spot with regard to
intellectual property rights and urged the American government to
include Indonesia on the priority list of countries for
investigation.

Appreciation

Lumenta said Rabinder Singh registered the Yonex brand name in
Indonesia in 1976 and had since pirated the trademark.

"The latest court judgments should greatly be appreciated
because the first legal action by Yonex in 1986 for the
cancellation of the Yonex trademark was dismissed both by the
Jakarta Central District Court and Supreme Court," Lumenta noted.

The previous trademark law was based on a declaration system
whereby the right to legal protection was granted to the first
users of trademarks, but the new trademark law of 1992 is based
on a registration system and prohibits the registration of
already well-known brands within the country and overseas.

Encouraged by the new trade mark law, Yonex proceeded further
with two separate parallel legal actions against Rabinder Singh,
using the article of the Civil Code regarding unfair competition,
and the article of the 1992 trademark law on well-known brands.

"Both legal actions ended in favor of Yonex Kabushiki Kaisha,
thereby making it the rightful owner of the Yonex brand name,"
Lumenta added. (vin)