Thursday, January 5, 2012

Indonesia - the start of preliminary injunctions?



Happy New Year! Although years tend not to matter when your species is 100 million years old.

Indonesia is one of the last of the more developed ASEAN markets not to have a system for preliminary injunctions in its civil court system. Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore all have them and use them.  Indonesia's post TRIPS IP law revisions in 2001 set out a system for preliminary injunctions in civil cases but specified that a further regulation would lay out the details. The Commercial Court was set up to hear IP cases, but it began operation a year or two later and cases in the early years were fewer than today. Somehow a decade passed by without the implementing regulation (although well known marks and Customs IP protection fall into the same category).

But just before Christmas, a draft regulation regulating Provisional Decisions for Intellectual Property Rights matters appeared at the Supreme Court. It aims to set clear and detailed terms for the process of seeking a provisional decision in the Commercial Court. IP Komodo struggled a bit with the draft, because it seems to focus mainly on Anton Pillar issues and not enough on preliminary injunctions/TROs.

It is supposed to apply to all forms of IP cases, especially infringement, where losses are irrepairable. It also covers goods seized by Customs (although Customs don't yet have any seizure system in place) and civil search and seizure orders where evidence is likely to be disposed of (Anton Pillar Orders).

It is still a draft and Indonesia is famous for allowing these regulations to languish. IP Komodo will keep an eye out for implementation.

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