Updating our previous Client Alert, the Indonesian Intellectual Property Office (DGIP) has announced a 6-month extension of the deadline to pay outstanding annuities for previously abandoned patents. The new deadline is now 17 August 2019.

Under a plan first announced in August 2018, the DGIP will begin rejecting patent applications by applicants who have ‘outstanding annuities’ due to the Indonesian government. Such ‘outstanding annuities’ are those that arose under the previous Indonesian Patent Law of 2001, whereby a patent owner sought to passively abandon a patent through the non-payment of annuities for three consecutive years. While not previously enforced until recently, Articles 88 and 115 (as well as the Explanatory Notes) stated that those unpaid annuities would be considered a ‘debt’ owned to the Indonesian government by the patent holder.

Such rejections were originally supposed to begin on 16 February 2019 but by a letter dated 17 February 2019, the Director General of Intellectual Property Dr. Freddy Harris extended the time by six months.

As such, patent holders should immediately move to confirm with the Indonesian government whether there are any outstanding patent annuities in their name that may cause new patent applications to be rejected starting on 17 August 2019.

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Januar Jahja & Partners (JJP) is a boutique IP firm based in Jakarta, Indonesia with more than 30 years experience in all aspects of Indonesian patent law, especially patent prosecution and annuity maintenance. For any questions relating to the above Client Alert or about patent matters in general, please contact us at januar@jahja.com. For more information, please visit www.jahja.com.[:]