Indonesia Legal Insights

The function of digital social media is not merely to share your personal life in internet. It has now become one of the most effective way for advertising and branding your products or services, either for personal or entity business. The content writer of digital social media often put pictures, songs, videos, words and other forms of audio-visual onto their content to create ads on social media. They either create new various forms of audio-visual which generates original works or incorporate existing works without crediting the author. Such contents which include the original or existing works that is used by content writer are intended for commercial purpose. The original works created by the author are protected under Copyright Law. Based on Law No. 28 year 2014 on Copyright (Copyright Law), Copyright is an exclusive right of the author that arise automatically based on the principle of declarative after an invention is embodied in a tangible form without prejudice to the r...

Indonesia has now enacted Protocol relating to the Madrid Agreement concerning the International Registration of Mark, 1989 by issuing President Regulation No. 92 year 2017. This is a legal basis that allows local applicant to file trademark application internationally using Madrid Protocol system. Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights of Republic of Indonesia (DGIP) have socialized the Madrid Protocol system to public since early 2019.  Through Madrid Protocol system, the local business who wish to market their products worldwide can register a trademark in other countries from Indonesia. The purpose of this system is to simplify trademark registration process in various countries through one application in one language, one currency and one procedure. In addition to saving costs, Madrid Protocol system also saving times because the registration process can be carried out in Indonesia.  The requirements for the applicant are: Indonesian citizen; havi...

As the economy in Indonesia continues to grow to this very day, the number of new startups in Indonesia are growing rapidly. Most of them are engaging in digital products or services business, even though some of them are engaging in conventional business. As the result, there are 5  unicorns   born in Indonesia in 2019. These startups are definitely creating and developing so many brands as the identity of their products. Nevertheless the growth of business must be followed by brand protection in order to protect the business as well. However, there are still many startups do not register their trademark to DGIP in conducting the business. They might not be aware of the importance of brand protection. Or they are just realized when a trademark dispute is arised! The brands also shall be protected from potential infringement such as unauthorised use or brand counterfeiting. Before launching a product to market, it is recommended to register a trademark for s...