A parliamentary committee of Indonesia's House of People's Representatives (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR)) is reviewing and discussing a draft patent law.
The draft patent law has been placed in the 2016 National Legislative Program (Prolegnas) of the DPR as one of the prioritised pieces of legislation for 2016. The new patent law is expected to be enacted in the first half of 2016.
We highlight below some key points of the September 2015 draft amendment to the draft patent law.
No data exclusivity rules
The draft patent law provides that if an invention is related to genetic resources and/or traditional knowledge, the source of those genetic resources and/or traditional knowledge must be mentioned clearly and properly.
Subject matter not regarded as invention
Under the current law, rules and methods about computer programs are not considered as inventions. In the draft patent law, this has been amended to rules and methods that only comprise computer programs. This amendment opens the possibility of computer-related inventions being protected as patents.
One other subject matter added to those that are not regarded as inventions is discovery in the forms of (1) new use of a known product, and (2) new forms of existing compounds that show no increase of efficacy.
Substantive examination
The draft patent law provides that the substantive examination can be done by examiners and also by outsourced experts. The purpose is to increase the quality of the examination, and to provide a skilled workforce for fields that have not been controlled by examiners.
Compulsory licence and government use
The draft patent law provides more clarity on the ruling of compulsory licences and government use.
For compulsory licences, the new ruling will include, among other things, (1) reasons for the delay in providing decisions on compulsory licences; (2) new timeframe for decisions to grant or reject compulsory licence applications, (3) the state's approval to export patented products to other developing or less developed countries that are in need of certain pharmaceutical products due to endemic diseases by request of those countries, and (4) compulsory licences regarding semiconductor technology.
For implementation of patents by the government, the proposed amendment will limit the government's implementation of patents for domestic needs to non-commercial purposes.
The government's implementation of patents in connection with state defence and security includes firearms, ammunition, military explosives, interception, tapping, reconnaissance, encryption, or other processes and apparatuses for the state's defence and security. For urgent needs for the public interest, the government's use of patents will include (a) pharmaceutical and/or biotechnology products for endemic diseases; (b) chemical and/or biotechnology products in agriculture for food security; (c) veterinary medicines to tackle endemic pests and animal diseases; (d) processes and/or products to tackle natural disasters and/or environmental disasters.
Extension of Bolar provision
The draft patent law amends the number of years for a third party to use a patented invention for the purpose of carrying out tests, preparing for production, and seeking regulatory/marketing approval before the patent expires, from two years to three years.
Further amendments to the draft patent law are still possible at this stage, as the parliamentary committee is still open to comments on the draft patent law.
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Daru Lukiantono |
Primastuti Purnamasari |
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