Asia-Pacific

In the midst of a pandemic that has disrupted economic activity so much so that Indonesia recently entered its first recession in over two decades, a proposed law on job creation brought thousands of protesters out to Jakarta's now almost deserted streets. The law weakens worker and environmental protections in the name of increasing business ease and underwent a somewhat unconventional and confusing path to implementation (there were four separate final drafts circulating at one point with differences of hundreds of pages). As a result, the law has been controversial from beginning to end. In its final form, it is over 1,100 pages long and amends approximately 75 separate laws, packaged together as the Job Creation Law No. 11 of Year 2020 or just the Omnibus Bill.

A recent trademark decision by the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) reveals the importance of submitting reliable and probative evidence in invalidation proceedings, even when the invalidation proceedings are undefended by the trademark owner.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology that simulates human intelligence. It performs tasks that usually require human intelligence, such as visual perception, natural speech recognition and language translation.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, pioneering pharmaceutical makers, research institutes, and universities are working in collaboration to develop novel antiviral drugs that are small compounds and vaccines. Although most inventions produced this year will be disclosed when their patent applications are published next year, the inventions being developed before this pandemic have already been disclosed.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution along with the spread of the IoT means that SEP licensing negotiations are expected to be held more often between SEP holders in the information and communication technology field and business entities in industries other than the telecommunications industry, especially multi-component products industries such as automobiles, game machines etc. However, risks involving SEP licensing negotiations and disputes have been increasing significantly because licensing negotiation practices and market views on royalties are very different between the above business entities and SEP holders. Being aware of such issues, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) published the Guide to Fair Value Calculation of Standard Essential Patents for Multi-Component Products (the basic concept) on April 21 2020. The basic concept has been formulated based on the report (dated March 31 2020) of the Study Group on Fair Value Calculation of Standard Essential Patents for Multi-Component Products (report), commissioned by the Policy Planning and Coordination Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, the METI.

In a decision published on June 26 2020, the Indonesian Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s ruling against a celebrity who sought to acquire prior rights to a disputed mark and then cancel a competitor’s trademark. The decision demonstrates some limit on the jurisdiction’s first-to-file position, which has historically been strictly applied and enforced both by courts and by the Indonesian IP Office. The Supreme Court also upheld the cancellation of some of the celebrity’s trademarks due to his previous work for the defendant as a brand ambassador, serving as a cautionary tale to potential bad faith plaintiffs.