Jakarta - US ASEAN Business Council (USABC) appreciates the performance of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights in enforcing Intellectual Property (IP) Law. The USABC expressed it during a state mission visit by the Minister of Law and Human Rights, H.E. Yasonna H. Laoly, after giving presentation regarding the ministry’s efforts in IP Law enforcement.
The Minister explained that the Ministry, especially the Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DGIP), has taken several measures regarding IP matters, such as disseminations to strong actions against those who violate the IP Law. "We have been working with Kominfo (Ministry of Communications and Informatics) to block websites supposed to copyright infringement. There are many websites, we have closed," said Yasonna in his Meeting Room, Ex- Sentra Mulia Building, Jakarta, Tuesday (01/08/2017).
Despite pressing piracy rates, the Minister is aware that the Ministry should not be disregarded, but must continue to fight against all kinds of IP infringement. "We have to work harder to overcome these problems," said Yasonna.
After listened to the Minister’s explanation, Jeanny Wong (a representative of Time Warner) were deeply impressed with the measures taken by the Ministry and Kominfo in closing more than 200 websites, committing piracy. She also had a research on how to overcome piracy, and offered cooperation to the Ministry in eradicating piracy in Indonesia.
"In our research, the crime of piracy continues to happen by means of dynamicly evolved technology. In South Korea and Hong Kong, we have managed to overcome piracy, If the Ministry interested we are ready to cooperate," said Jeanny.
Meanwhile, a representative from HP, Surendren Velappu, said that the Government of Indonesia had suffered because of piracy, not only the decreasing interest to invest in Indonesia, taxation losses is also enormous. Suren exemplified the hijacking of ink refill; the hijackers earned a very large income, while they did not pay taxes. "According to our observations around Rp.60 billion that should be gained by the Government of Indonesia, but the realization is only Rp.6 Billion. And this is just ink, not yet another business’s product, "said Suren.
Suren further suggested that the Indonesian government must work hand in hand to solve the problem of piracy, It is impossibly done by the ministry alone. "In my home country, Malaysia, five years ago was blacklisted by the WTO's priority watch list, but now it is out, because we fighting piracy together, no ministry works alone. If it were only the ministry of Law and Human Rights, the piracy might have been reduced, but would not be able to eradicate, should involve all stakeholders, "said Suren.
In response, Minister of Law and Human Rights stated that we have a National Team for Combating Intellectual Property Violations (PPKP) whose members are from various ministries and agencies under the coordination of the Directorate of Intellectual Property Investigation, and we are ready to cooperate in handling cases of piracy and IP crime. "I strongly agree that IP crime should be taken seriously. We'll see what kind of cooperation we can do, "Yasonna said.
USABC is an association of 150 multinational corporations based in the United States, which is specialized in doing business in the ASEAN region. Also present at the meeting were Director General of General Legal Administration (AHU) Freddy Harris; Plt. DGIP Aidir Amin Daud; Director of Trademark and Geographical Indications; Director of Patent; Director of Copyrights and Industrial Design; Director of Cooperation and IP Empowerment; and Head of Foreign Cooperation Division Dwi Rahayu. (Zaka edit: Yay)
