Indonesia needs to improve its IP e-filing system, an IP lawyer says
17 October 2023
Rochmali Zultan, IP consultant, Tilleke & Gibbins, Jakarta
When Indonesia’s current IP e-filing system was launched on August 17, 2019, all new IP applications could only be filed online. This has led to applications being filed from everywhere, at almost any time. For IP lawyers, including individual applicants, the IP e-filing system also helped cut the time and expense of travelling to the IP office.
However, according to Rochmali Zultan, an IP consultant at Tilleke & Gibbins in Jakarta, there are still a lot of improvements to be made, especially for the trademark e-filing, as there are a number of issues. He added constant updates and improvements are necessary to guarantee the applicants’ rights upon their IP.
“The biggest challenge for trademark applicants is that there is no room to customize the goods or services,” he said. “In this case, applicants must select the goods or services only from the list available on the online system. Hence, it is also necessary to conduct the goods or services availability to see whether the proposed goods or services are available in the list or not. For the applicants having specific goods, there is no option other than choosing the available goods or services in the list with a wider scope.”
While in the previous version, the payment in e-filing can be made before the applicant filled in any details or uploaded any required document to the system. The IP office has recently updated the trademark e-filing system, where the payment can only be made after all the details are filled in and the required documents are uploaded. This means that the goods and/or services must be chosen and final. Once the government fee is paid, the goods or services that have been chosen cannot be amended, even if the application has not yet been finalized.
“Another problem is that we experienced a number of errors in relation to the trademark registration certificates, where some of the goods or services are either missing, automatically deleted or even added,” he said. “ We have also encountered the situation that many of the Bahasa Indonesia version of the goods and services are incorrect. ”
He added: “Indeed, the IP office frequently maintains the system for any glitches or bugs. Nevertheless, we wish that the IP office will inform their schedule prior to updating the e-filing system to the IP lawyers and/or applicants and avoid sudden maintenance. We also hope that the IP Office will improve the trademark e-filing system soon".
- Excel V. Dyquiangco
