In the age of working from home and large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), the  Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DGIP) in Indonesia noted an increase in intellectual property registrations compared to last year.

"It can be seen from the intellectual property registration income, that where we have implemented an online system, there were around Rp 250 billion entries during March and April this year, up from the same period last year at only Rp 130 billion. This is beyond our expectations," said Freddy Harris, the Director General of the Intellectual Property,  in the IP Talks From Home online talkshow via YouTube, as quoted from official information received by Kontan e-paper.

This change was also reflected in copyright registrations. A few years ago only 3,000 copyrights were registered, but now it has reached 21,000 registrations. Similarly, domestic patent registrations (formerly 10% of overall patent registrations) have now slowly risen to 15%. The majority of those registering patents in Indonesia are foreigners with overseas patent applications, which account for 80-90% of the total patents filed in Indonesia. In terms of volume, culinary was the highest by sector at 40%, followed by fashion and then the crafts sector.

Furthermore, in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, the DGIP has been successful in setting up virtual counters, the first virtual IP registration counters in Indonesia.

"People  have been very enthusiastic about the virtual counters, as seen from recent transactions. They no longer need to come to the physical counters because it is very risky for spreading the virus. With these counters, people are being adequately serviced and the DGIP's acceptance rate has increased," said  Mr. Harris.

According to the Director-General, this indicates that people are increasingly concerned with protecting their IP assets . In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been encouraged to continue creating and innovating, with this innovation seen as an important driver of the economy.

There are three important pillars to improving intellectual property management in Indonesia including filing, commercialisation, and law enforcement. The DGIP continues to communicate these three pillars to the regions and ministries of the relevant institutions, which in turn has had an impact on increasing IP applications with the DGIP, including patents, copyrights and trade marks.

Improvements to the IP management system in Indonesia will help businesses in the medium to long term. 

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