The Patent Bill Enters Priority Prolegnas

JAKARTA: The Bill on Amendments to Law No.13/2016 on Patents (Patent Law) is included in the Priority List of National Legislation Program (Program Legislasi Nasional – Prolegnas) for discussions on being passed as a law with the House of Representative.

According to the House of Representatives' website, https://www.dpr.go.id, the Bill to amend the Patent Law is in the 35^th position of the Priority Prolegnas and there are currently around 39 bills included in the Priority Prolegnas, including the Bill to amend Law No. 31/2000 on Industrial Design.

In accordance with the mandate of the applicable legislation related to the formation of laws, the government is open to receiving suggestions and input from the public. Therefore, the Directorate General of Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (DGIP) is currently going out to the public, stakeholders, and law enforcers to conduct socialization of the Bill on Amendments to the Patent Law.

The socialization aims to obtain input from the public to be incorporated into the drafting of the bill, which in the end could hopefully accommodate the interests of the community appropriately regarding patent protection.

Substantially, it is deemed necessary to amend the Patent Law in order to follow the current global developments and national or even international provisions. There are still provisions that contradict with international regulation which bring impacts to other countries' wavering desires to enforce patent protection in Indonesia, and also potentially hamper the investment opportunity and innovation in turn.

DGIP Legal Analyst, Andi Kurniawan, as quoted from DGIPI's official website, dgip.go.id, said the Patent Law amendment aims to improve IP protection upon commercialized products. Amendment is needed to ensure that the procedures for implementing IP rights would not hamper commercial activities.

Andi said that in the field of patents there are several issues that become points of amendment with regard to the issue of national innovation, among them are related to the protection of simple patents, computer implemented inventions, and the grace period. In addition, there is also the issue of harmonization of international provisions related to the use of patented products or processes in Indonesia. (RKH-AKR/su)