"MSMEs should protect their merchandise by recording and registering their intellectual properties in the form of copyrights, brands, patents, and industry designs," ministry's official, Fajar B. S. Lase, noted through a statement on Thursday.
Only 10 percent out of the over 64 million MSMEs in Indonesia had registered their intellectual property, he noted while disseminating information on the importance of intellectual property protection in Pelalawan, Riau.
This figure indicates low awareness among people to protect their products.
If MSMEs do not register their intellectual properties with the ministry, then their products may likely be claimed and plagiarized by irresponsible parties in future.
"For instance, a person sees your business is developing. One day, they can steal your idea and register it as their intellectual property," Lase explained.
To this end, everyone, especially MSMEs, should be aware and realize the importance of protecting intellectual property. People cannot register an idea or intellectual property after someone has stolen it.
The directorate general fully supports the protection of intellectual property for MSMEs players through incentives in the form of recording and registration tariff as well as management cost.
Currently, the directorate general offers convenience and reasonable cost to register intellectual property for MSMEs. In addition, it creates a public service innovation in the form of online intellectual property recording and registration application.
The special tariffs for MSMEs include registration of non-software copyright for Rp200 thousand and Rp300 thousand for software copyright.
A special tariff, totaling Rp500 thousand, is also given for brand registration. Meanwhile, registration for industry design cost is Rp250 thousand and Rp550 thousand for one set of design.
In addition, patent registration cost is Rp200 thousand for the simple patent category and Rp300 thousand for the patent category.
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Translator: M Zulfikar, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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