"The achievements China has made in the field of intellectual property (IPR) are significant and impressive, especially in the area of encouraging people to protect IPR." September 10, president of Indonesia Intellectual Property Office (IIPO) Ahmed Mujahid Ramli said excitedly with a big smile on the face after attending the opening ceremony of the China - ASEAN seminar on the protection of IPR and traditional knowledge and genetic resources held in Beijing.

Establish an effective mechanism

Indonesia, the beautiful country of thousand islands, is located in the southeastern area of Asia, and is also one of the five founders of ASEAN. As early as end 19 century, Indonesia has provide IPR law services to the public, and gradually established a comprehensive IPR law and regulation and unified IP administration organs. "In terms of IPR protection, Indonesia has formulated some measures and regulations, and developed a more perfect IPR infringement investigation system. As of now, we have received 55 infringement reports," said Ramli.  "On the road to IPR protection, we have made a large number of policies, laws and regulations, and established a more comprehensive investigation system targeting IPR infringement. In 2011, IIPO adjusted IPR infringement investigation procedures. We did utmost to bring both sides to reach compensation agreements and transferred the cases to judicial authorities when the parties can not reach an agreement." Ahmed Mujahid Ramli continued, "As to IPR protection in Indonesia, we still have a long way to go, especially in the aspect of raising public awareness of IPR. Now we are trying our best to publicize IPR knowledge to enhance public awareness. For example, the infringement of small-sized enterprises in Indonesia is particularly serious. To obtain additional benefit, some traders are even at the cost of making IPR infringement. However, they do not realize such behaviors are break the law. China has made a lot of progress in encouraging people to make innovation as well as enhancing people's IPR awareness, and the achievements it has made are significant. That is what IIPO is glad to learn from State Intellectual Property Office this time."

Step up international cooperation

"I'm very glad to have a chance to come to China and have deep-going exchanges with leaders of SIPO. Indonesia can learn a lot from China and has a long way to go in IP field." This is the word Ahmad Mujahid Ramli said most frequently to his colleges. "The slow growth of patent applications remains a big problem for Indonesia. But China received 1.633 million patent applications in 2011 alone, which deeply astonished and very envy letting me," said Ramli. In recent years, in a bid to draw on the experiences and improve international influence, Indonesia carries out international cooperation in IP field, including having signed bilateral treaty with EPO, JPO, actively participating in IPR forums held by WIPO, ASEAN and APEC.

"Some Indonesian companies imported products from China and sold in Indonesian market with their own brands affixed. Some even filed patent applications for such products. We would not grant patent right to them, but we occasionally make an error as the number of such applications is overwhelming. So it is necessary to step up international cooperation in IP filed,"Ramli told CIP News reporter.

 As the interview was drawing to a close, Ramli expressed his wishes, "I hope Indonesia would further draw experiences from China, and both sides would have experiences and information shared and promote common development of IPR of two sides."

(China IP News)