Chinese brands make for good trademark piracy

Cancellation litigation at the Jakarta Commercial Court is pretty routine work. A large number of Indonesian trademark pirates file variants of usually well known marks and then sit back and defend when sued. Mostly these are famous western brands. So it is all the more interesting when Asian companies are affected. Of course local trademark pirates do not discern nationality, so there is a regular procession of Singapore and other Asian companies in the Commercial Court. This case is illustrative of the power of Chinese brands.

Tencent Holdings is a PRC online services company which operates the QQ instant messenger service. The company filed a cancellation to recover the mark QQ Kui Kui in class 9 against a local businessman Susanto. Tencent's business is services, but they succeeded in arguing bad faith.

Perhaps the most significant point is that Indonesian trademark piracy affects everyone, wasting time and effort on litigation. Legal costs are not recoverable in Indonesia, but more companies affected should file damages claims too.