Indonesian President calls for IP waiver broadening; IP lawyer agrees on IP waiver on Patent of Inventions

29 November 2022

At the recently held G20 Summit, Indonesian President Joko Widodo declared that an intellectual property waiver "must be broadened" to cover all medical solutions, including diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.

The COVID-19 pandemic, according to the president, serves as a warning that future health dangers should be anticipated.

But according to Gunawan Suryomurcito, a consultant at Rouse Consulting International in Indonesia, the idea of widening IP Waiver on health issues is not quite correct because IP protection related to health is primarily on patent of invention for medicine (including vaccines) and substances to produce it and does not include diagnostic and therapeutic technology. “In general, I agree with President Widodo on IP Waiver on patent of inventions related to vaccines and essential medicines for highly contagious diseases and in case of emergency like Covid 19, but in particular I do not agree with the widening of the waiver which is without time limit.”

He adds, “I am of the idea that there is a misconception regarding the need to widen IP waivers in Indonesia when health is concerned because there is an exception of patentable inventions in the Indonesian Patent Law (Art. 9 b. Law No. 13 of 2016). Diagnostic and therapeutic inventions are not patentable. Therefore, no need to widen the IP waiver on health issues.”

– EXCEL V. DYQUIANGCO

Law firms