The assistant director of the Homeland Security Investigations, Global Trade Investigations Division and director of the IPR Center, Matthew Allen, welcomed the delegation to share experiences in dealing with intellectual property (IP) infringement.

Matthew also explained the work that they do in the IPR Center to protect citizens and US industry from IP crimes. "The IPR Center is at the forefront of the United States government in combating intellectual property infringement globally and in enforcing international trade laws," he said.

The IPR Center implements three strategic approaches to its duties. First, the investigative strategy, namely identifying, filing charges and dismantling criminal organizations involved in the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit products. It is then followed by the interdiction strategy, conducting inspections to prevent and prohibit the circulation of counterfeit goods in the US. Last is the outreach and training strategy, in which the IPR Center provides training for domestic and international law enforcement for IP violations.

Following through on the third strategy, the approach has also been implemented in the protection of IP in Indonesia. The DJKI continues to make efforts to eradicate IP violations by providing education, supervision and protection under the law. As exemplified last October, when DJKI conducted education for traders at ITC Mangga Dua about preventing the sale of counterfeit goods.

Moreover, the DJKI also held capacity-building training for civil investigators (PPNS) to ensure they have the appropriate competence in conducting supervision and enacting the law. This initiative was taken so that law enforcement in the field of IP in Indonesia runs effectively and in an effort to protect businesses, art creators and investors from infringement crimes.

Indonesia currently holds Priority Watch List (PWL) status because it is considered a country that has a fairly severe level of IP violations based on a report released by the US Trade Representative (USTR).

Anom Wibowo, the director of investigation and dispute resolution and head of the Indonesian delegation, said that in creating effective and efficient IP law, there needed to be proper synergy and coordination between various law enforcement agencies.

Indonesia has established an Operational Task Force (Satgad Ops) for the management of the PWL status, which consists of five institutions that have direct authority in the field of supervision and to enforce IP law. These institutions are the DJKI, the Criminal Investigation Department of the National Police, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise, the Communications and Information Ministry and the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency.

“We think that the formation of the Task Force has been quite effective in its implementation. However, we still need input and comparisons so that Indonesia really has an appropriate system to implement," said Anom.

Therefore, the benchmarking process with the IPR Center in the US is vital in providing a new paradigm regarding the enforcement of law to be applied locally. The IPR Center is the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center of 27 law enforcement agencies in the US and in Europe prioritizing the crack down on IP crimes.

Anom revealed that one of the things that Indonesia wanted to learn from the IPR Center was how to coordinate multiple law enforcement agencies to be able to run optimally together.

Furthermore, the Indonesian delegation also negotiated with the IPR Center to support the capacity building of the PPNS DJKI through training.

"Earlier we had negotiated to be able to work together to get training to increase the capacity of civil servant investigators," concluded Anom.

The Indonesian delegates also made the time to visit the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters in Washington DC, which is one of the law enforcement agencies under the coordination of the IPR Center. This visit was related to Indonesia's plan to involve the FBI in handling IP violations.

Popular

Japan to export used destroyers to Philippines to deter China

Analysis: Indonesia’s competitiveness ranking falls amid weakening fundamentals

KPK finds guns, Rp 2.8 billion in the house of an aide close to Bobby Nasution