Indonesia's new IP database

The Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights (DGIPR) has launched its new integrated Intellectual Property Data and Information Service System (LADI HKI) which includes Patent, Trade Mark and Industrial Design data at http://e-statushki.dgip.go.id. WIPO has been working for several years to help automate DGIPR, one of the last of the major SE Asian countries to be running manual systems.

 

This replaces the old DGIPR Online database. Users can filter and sort search results for - 
 

A. Patent and Utility models. The database includes rejected, granted, cancelled, pending and lapsed patents.  
 

B. Trade Marks, Collective Marks and Service Marks. It includes registered, renewed, pending, expired, cancelled, deleted, withdrawn, and rejected marks.
 

C. Industrial Design including registered, pending, expired, cancelled, withdrawn, and rejected Industrial Designs.

The language is Bahasa which will not assist overseas IP holders. There are still some question marks over the data quality given that until now manual systems have substantially been used by the DGIPR. So it may take a while before old manual derived omissions are remedied. 

  

Philippines enforcement - the role of the National Committee on IP Rights

The establishment in the Philippines of the multi-agency intellectual property taskforce, the National Committee on IP Rights (NCIPR), is proving very helpful to IPR holders in conducting enforcement.

The difficulties in enforcement in the Philippines are well known. Various requirements make raids time consuming, difficult and expensive – liaising with an enforcement body e.g. the Police, NBI, asking a court to issue a search warrant, executing the search warrant, etc.
 
In the past months the NCIPR has spearheaded numerous raid and similar actions to enforce IP rights. Recently, the NCIPR conducted movie house inspections in SM Manila as part of a campaign against movie piracy. This is just the first of a series of movie house inspections planned by the NCIPR. The NCIPR aims to engage movie house administrators into a dialogue to improve efforts against movie piracy. The NCIPR team was comprised of representatives from the Intellectual Property Office, the Optical Media Board (in charge of promoting/enforcing rights relating to optical media, such as copyrighted films in DVD formats), Department of Justice IPR Taskforce (in charge of prosecuting criminal cases), the National Bureau of Investigation’s IPR Department, the Bureau of Customs and the Philippine National Police - Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

On the trademark side the NCIPR has been equally active. A series of raid actions against warehouses in Tondo and Binondo in Manila were conducted in the last quarter of 2014 that resulted in the seizure of various counterfeit apparel, perfumes, smartphones, electronic gadgets and accessories worth at least P570-Million.

Other agencies that are members of the NCIPR that can be involved in similar enforcement actions are the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of the Interior and Local Government, National Telecommunications Commission, National Book Development Board and the Food and Drugs Administration.
The NCIPR thus provides an opportunity for IP holders to reach out to the concerned government agency that can directly help in addressing their IP problems. This is a welcome alternative to having to do your own government legwork.

The NCIPR is the brainchild of the Intellectual Property Office and is an example of how a country's national IP office can take on the multi-agency problem of IP enforcement and provide a usable solution.

A domestic patent sucess in the Philippines

The Philippines Star reports on a great example of a medical technology locally invented, patented and deployed for public benefit. Dr. Enrique Ostrea is a Filipino neonatologist. He was concerned about premature infants born in public hospitals with respiratory problems. They often died unnecessarily because there were no ventilators. The price of commercial ventilators was prohibitive for under resourced public hospitals. He was inspired by the sight of nurses hand pumping with inflatable bags to keep babies alive.

The led to a collaboration between Dr. Ostrea and engineers from the University of the Philippines and the Department of Science and Technology. They created the OstreaVent, a simple ventilator driven by pressure and time, which has undergone significant testing and is now an effective and safe alternative to more expensive commercial machines. 

The OstreaVent machine is protected by a patent. The patent was donated to the Breath of Life Foundation a non profit entity which now distributes OstreaVent ventilators around the Philippines. They recently held a fundraising concert to raise more money to distribute more machines.  

Kopitiam wars in Indonesia - another battlefront

In a continuation of the longstanding Indonesian KOPITIAM wars, (background here) a new case between Phiko Leo Putra operator of Lau's Kopitiam cafe and Abdul Alex Soelystio has been decided in the Supreme Court. Abdul has secured dozens of trademark registrations in many classes for KOPITIAM which is a Chinese translation of coffee shop, previously a generic term across South East Asia including Indonesia.

Hundreds, if not thousands of KOPITIAM cafes exist however. Abdul has been winning cases and is taking enforcement action against the many users of KOPITIAM throughout Indonesia.  In another case, he forced the cancellation of Paiman Halim's KOPITIAM trade mark registration in class 43.

In the current case, Phiko had applied for LAU'S KOPITIAM in Class 43 for cafes and restaurants in September 2013. Phiko claimed that Abdul's registration for KOPITIAM should be cancelled because it is in the public domain. Phiko argued KOPITIAM is a combination of two descriptive words, KOPI ('Coffee' in Indonesian language) and TIAM ('Shop' in Chinese Hokkien dialect). He argued it is widely used for coffee shops especially by the Chinese immigrant community.

The Defendant Abdul claimed that the LAU'S KOPITIAM application is similar to his KOPITIAM trade mark registration. He requested the court to order the Plaintiff to stop his business and pay damage for Abdul's losses.

The Panel of Judges at the Jakarta Commercial Court rejected the Plaintiff's lawsuit. However they also decided that Lau's Kopitiam mark has significant differences to the Defendant's KOPITIAM mark so was not similar.

On appeal in the Supreme Court, the Judges overruled parts of the Commercial Court decision. They confirmed the two marks were in fact similar and that there was infringement and Phiko had to cease use of his Lau's Kopitiam trademark.

The decision is probably right in respect of the similarity. But it does not address the descriptive generic issue, which is also ongoing in another case brought by the Kopitiam Owners  Association. Meanwhile Abdul keeps asserting and winning cases, in his attempt to monopolize an entire industry.

 

Digital ISP liability in Thailand

There are several areas where control over netizens is exercised in Thailand. The first is insulting the monarchy, lèse majesté. In 2012 an Internet user was convicted of this when she failed to delete from a forum she administered, allegedly insulting comments. The other is the equally vague issue of free speech. There have been several instances of content removal for this reason. It is said that a lack of Safe Harbour protections for ISPs leave them with uncertain liability and therefore they prefer to take down content without much inquiry. Especially as the 2014 coup and martial law has made them more conservative.
 
2 Digital Economy laws recently passed by the Thai military government make changes. An amendment to the 2007 Computer Crime Act, which makes ISPs liable for offenses such as lèse majesté by their users now provides that ISPs avoid liability only if they can prove that they have complied with the warning and removed the content. In essence it makes removal necessary, to avoid risk. 
 
Another amendment is meant is for copyright. ISPs are not liable if they do not control, initiate or order the infringement. Only a court order can override this. So for copyright the ISP protection is wider than for the free speech areas. ISPs exercising no control, the so called 'public utility' approach escape liability. Only when they start to take on editorial responsibility will liability arise. 

For now trademarks attract no such specific protection. Secondary liability is not specifically set out, but in practice ISPs do comply with IP holder requests.
 
IP Holders and ISPs will like the clarity the amendments bring. But beyond this, it will also helps tackle the problem of online infringement by setting clear borders. Because of the influence of Thailand's control of content deemed inappropriate for royal or free speech reasons, ISPs may still find it easier to take content down than risk liability. Free speech advocates may complain, but Thailand is a country with widespread IP problems that may justify such an approach.  

Cybercrime courts in the Philippines

The Philippine Department of Justice says a proposal has been submitted to the Supreme Court for the creation of a Cybercrime Court to deal with cases perpetrated in cyberspace. This is contemplated by the Anti-Cybercrime Law which mandates having specially trained judges to handle cybercrime cases. 

Cybercrimes are those perpetrated through the internet or through online devices.

Offences can include cyber-espionage and intellectual property theft, cybersex cases and so on. IPR cases represent a threat to business and especially small businesses. Threats to consumers are another risk area such as targeted attacks, mobile threats, malware attacks and data breaches. From January to December of 2014, the Philippine National Police's Anti-Cybercrime Group recorded 614 cybercrime incidents, compared to 2013 having only 288 incidents.

IP owners will be interested since the general Philippines courts are very slow for IP cases. Cases are appealed repeatedly without penalty so the average criminal case can last a decade. Specialist courts might help improve this.