Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
10-Jan-2021 By: Erika Rosalin
Office Manager/ AGIP Indonesia
On November 15th 2020, the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, together with Indonesia former Trade Minister, Agus Suparmanto, signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a partnership cooperation agreement between ASEAN Member States, Australia, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, and New Zealand covering market access, rules and disciplines, and economic and technical cooperation.
RCEP regulates partnership rules amongst its members, including Intellectual Property field. The basic principles of Intellectual Property partnership in RCEP are regulated in Chapter 11.
In the view of Intellectual Property in Indonesia, the signing of RCEP will have consequences to the current Intellectual Property regulation in Indonesia. Indonesia will have to ratify some treaties required by the RCEP, namely Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Micro-organisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure. In addition, Indonesia also needs to cooperate with other RCEP member states to ratify or accede the 1991 Act of International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations and the Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks.
Furthermore, Indonesia shall also make some adjustments to its Intellectual Property law by adding protection of encrypted programme-carrying satellite signals, government use of software which obliges government to use only non-infringing computer software, scent mark, and certification mark. As for electronic filing system as required by the RCEP, Indonesia through the Directorate General of Intellectual Property already developed and used its electronic filing system for Intellectual Property, including issuance of electronic certificate.
In terms of transparency, Indonesia judicial authority basically has provided transparent system of court process where public can access and monitor progress of their court cases.
Lastly, by signing the RCEP, Indonesia government expects that the cooperation between the members will benefit Indonesia citizens, especially the SMEs which now have more opportunities to export their products to other countries and attract investors to invest more in Indonesia.