Indonesia Plan to Issue Certification for Malls to Ensure Only Original Products are Sold

The Directorate General of Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights continues to eradicate Intellectual Property infringement. Among others is to ensure that the mall and also the shops are imposed to ensure that the goods sold by the individual shop comply to the stipulations that are set out in the prevailing law on Intellectual Property. This means that they may not sell any counterfeit good and therefore must make proper selection of the goods they wish to sell in their shops. These are one of the steps to ensure compliance of the law and to maintain honesty in the business.

The malls are important distribution and sale of all products that are attractive for the consumers that are in search of their needs. It is the mall that give the attraction to the customer to come and gather to spend their time to look around and buy what they like. This require the malls to follow a certain set of rules ensuring no counterfeits are in circulation and upon which the government can issue certification there to. The government intends to have the malls enter an agreement that in the case their operating procedure that the malls are free from counterfeit goods or any infringement of intellectual property. It is therefore the malls’ management that bears the responsibility to constantly investigate and make close watch that the individual shops are only selling products that have quality and are original and strictly remind the individual shops upon any occurrence of violation.

While malls are places where the customers and seller have the opportunity to meet face to face, it is clearly known that customer enjoy the shopping that is done online. Therefore, online marketplaces are also to be impose with similar rules in regard to compliance of intellectual property laws. In regard to marketplace, the directorate general intends to cooperate with the Ministry that has the authority over information technology (Menkominfo). Online marketplaces are therefore continually scrutinized by the Menkominfo and in the event of violation of intellectual property then the authority can take down such website.

Indonesia wishes to have its name deleted from the USTR Priority Watch List. To achieve this Indonesia must do all effort to comply with international IP standards, for which entering agreement with the mall as mentioned about and the possibility of taking down marketplaces, are two steps of the multiple steps to fulfill Indonesia’s goal of comprehensive eradication of intellectual property infringement. Indonesia also wishes to ensure that it has the capacity to enter international market and therefore implement the policy of strengthening its economy by gaining trust worldwide that their products are in full compliance with international requirements and therefore securing its export capacity (jpk/bdp/su).