Govt to streamline registration of trademarks

The Law and Human Rights Ministry expects to streamline procedures to register trademarks in the hope of slashing the time needed for businesses to gain official recognition of their brands.

"Such an improvement is part of the implementation of Law and Human Rights Ministry Regulation No. 67/2016 on Brand Registration," the ministry’s trademark and geographical indication director, Fathlurachman, said Friday, as quoted by kontan.co.id.

The regulation is based on Law No. 20/2016 on trademarks, passed by lawmakers in November last year. The ministerial regulation would provide guidelines to, for example, deal with trademark disputes, Fathlurachman said.

Under current trademark registration procedures, applicants need to wait between 12 and 18 months to secure official recognition of their brands. The necessary procedures include document validation and a three-month time window during the public is invited to challenge the originality of the brand being registered