Yogyakarta (ANTARA News) - The Yogyakarta provincial government will always try to help local small enterpreneurs obtain intellectual property rights (IPR) for their products, an official said.

"Where small enterpreneurs are concerned, we will help them with funds to obtain IPR and inform them of the need to have IPR," Head of the Yogyakarta Industry and Trade Office Astungkoro said here on Sunday.

He said small-scale businessmen were reluctant to take care of IPR because they had to spend a lot of money, not to mention long time to obtain it.

The local government would make a number of efforts to deal with the matter by among other things issuing documents confirming that the products of small entrepreneurs had been registered, he said.

"Admittedly, the legal documents are not IPR certificates but they can be used in case of problems such as disputes over products, the more so because many products of micro small and medium businesses are almost the same," he said.

The need to have IPR was not only national but also international demand particularly when the relevant products were marketed abroad, he said.

He expressed hope that all business people would be aware of the need to take care of IPR, saying IPR gave added value to the relevant products.(*)E013/HAJM/S012

Editor: Jafar M Sidik
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