Yusril: Intellectual Property Has Significant Potential to Create Economic Value

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Coordinating Minister for Legal Affairs, Human Rights, Immigration and Corrections Yusril Ihza Mahendra stressed that intellectual property, including patents, has significant potential to create economic value.

He said Indonesia had a wide range of intellectual potential in the arts, agriculture, maritime and fisheries sectors, as well as natural-resource-based industries.

“That potential needs to be supported by legal protection and easier registration, so that the creativity and research of the public can be developed into economic assets,” Yusril said at the 2026 Indonesian Patent Business Forum (FBPI) in Jakarta on Tuesday.

He said there was still a gap between universities and industry, leaving many research findings unable to be applied or produced on a wider scale.

The two sides, he said, should be implementing or producing a range of discoveries in intellectual, industrial and technological fields, among others.

“But because they are ‘not sufficiently connected’, so many discoveries end up as academic work only and are not put to use in industry,” he said.

Yusril cited the many agricultural discoveries made by researchers at universities across the country, while farmers in Indonesia continued to cultivate land, plant crops and process produce using relatively basic methods, resulting in little economic added value.

He said he hoped the 2026 FBPI, held from 3 to 5 November 2026, would encourage inventors to work harder and develop useful innovations that could then be patented through the Ministry of Law.

However, he stressed that fostering an intellectual property ecosystem was not solely the responsibility of the Ministry of Law. It also involved other ministries, particularly those responsible for industrial development and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

Yusril said cross-sectoral and inter-ministerial collaboration was needed to connect research findings with market demand.

He added that making patent registration easier, including for simple patents, was also a way to broaden inventors’ access to protection.

“Through steps like these, we hope Indonesia will make greater progress in the years to come,” he said.