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Wednesday 11 February 2009

Agricultural Investment and Trade Opportunities in Indonesia (4)

Relevant International Agreement

Investment Guarantee and Protection Agreement

A number of governments provide investment guarantees to other nationals who make overseas investment in their countries. In most cases, these guarantees cover compensation in case of nationalization or expropriation, damages or losses caused by incidents of war, revolution or insurrection and payments for any approved remittance pursuant to the investment in case of non-convertibility of currency of the host country. To provide security for foreign investment, the Government of Indonesia concludes investment Guarantee Agreement (IGA) with ASEAN governments. Besides, Indonesia signed bilaterally the investment promotion and Protection Agreements with 55 countries, namely: Argentina, Algeria, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium/Luxemburg, Cambodia, Chile, People Republic of China, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, People Democratic republic of Laos, Malaysia, Morocco, Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, The Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, The Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

To create a favorable international investment climate, Indonesia has also signed multilateral agreements, thereby promoting foreign direct investment in Indonesia. Indonesia is now a member of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), which will protect investment against various political risks.

To deal with foreign investment disputes, Indonesia has become a signatory member of the investment Center on the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

Intellectual Property Right

Indonesia has made a great progress on intellectual property protection since 1986. Indonesia is a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization and is party of certain sections of the Paris Convention for the protection of intellectual property. Pursuant to obligations under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Right (TRIPs), one of the Uruguay Round Agreements, Indonesia has amended Patent Law, Copyrights Law and Trademark Law in 1997.

Patent

Indonesia’s first patent law entered into effect on August 1, 2001 by Law No. 14 of 2001. The Law and its implementing regulations outline patent consultants, and patent announcements. Products and production processes are in principle patentable subject to certain requirements. The Law provides protection for a period of 20 years for Patent and 10 years for Simple Patent, both of them can not be extended.

Trademarks

The first Indonesia’s trademark act took effect on April 1, 1993 but then it was replaced by Law No. 15 of August 2001. The act is intended to provide greater protection for well-known foreign and Indonesian marks, and to prohibit the use of deceptively similar marks. The act states that trademark right are determined on a first file basis rather than on a first uses basis. The trademark is filed and it can be extended. After registration, the trademark must actually be used in commerce. The detection of registered trademark from the general list trademark can be undertaken either by the trademark holder initiative or the trademark office if trademark is not used with in 3 years.

Copyright

In 1987 and 1997, the House of Representative – Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR) passed two amendments to the 1982 Copyright Law. The amended law affords protection to people’s creations on science, art and literature, expands the scope of coverage and rises the terms of protection for most categories of works to international standards. The copyright is valid for:

1. As long as the author’s life until 50 years from the date of death of author; for book, flyer, paper / write. Seminar, lecture, speech, and the like, performance (music, Java traditional music / karawitan, drama, dance, people or puppet performance / pewayangan, pantomime, choreography, created song or music with or without lyric, arts (painting, statue), batiks arts, architecture, map, translation, interpret, and excerpt, writing and work of arts.

2. 50 years from the date of the copyright notification, for broadcasting creation used such as on TV, radio, video, and movie, created song or music with or without lyric, recorded voice or sound, arts (painting statue); cinematography, computer program.

3. 25 years from date of copyright notification; for photography, computer programs, and cover design.

To be continued.

Source: Guide to Agricultural Investment and Trade Opportunities in Indonesia, Ministry of Agriculture, the Republic of Indonesia

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