Indonesia and South Korea have opened a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) initiative, allowing applicants to use an existing Korean patent as a basis for obtaining patent rights in Indonesia. This development stems from the signing of two memoranda of understanding (MOUs) on September 8, 2023, between Indonesia’s Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DGIP) and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). One MOU covers the broad collaboration in intellectual property, while the other outlines the specific operational framework of the PPH mechanism.

According to Wongrat Ratanaprayul, a director at Tilleke & Gibbins in Jakarta, the success of the Japan PPH in reducing the burden for patent examiners and speeding up applications has led the DGIP to pursue establishing additional agreements with other patent offices. She said that given the high number of South Korean patent applications in Indonesia, a PPH with KIPO was “the logical choice.” 

She added: “This PPH should benefit both Indonesia and South Korea. South Korean applicants will have an advantage when filing in South Korea first and later using the granted South Korean patent to speed up the substantive examination process in Indonesia so that they can speed up the patent granting process of their Indonesian patent applications. Indonesian patent examiners will be able to lighten their workload for substantive examination by relying on the substantive examination results of the South Korean patent examiners. However, they still need to verify that the claims do not violate Indonesian patent law.” 

In the coming months, she expects applicants with South Korean patents matching a pending patent application in Indonesia can request a PPH based on their South Korean patent.

- Excel V. Dyquiangco