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Intellectual property rights key to sustainability in Indonesia
As technology transfer depends on the willingness of owners to share licenses and knowledge, lower-income countries have difficulty adopting sustainable technology.
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Home-grown tech: A Harimau medium tank demonstrates its capabilities during the Indo Defense 2022 Expo & Forum at JIExpo Kemayoran, Jakarta, on Wednesday. The tank is produced by state arms maker PT Pindad. (Antara/M Risyal Hidayat)
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ndonesians are increasingly aware of the need to develop in a more sustainable manner. In October 2022, the Jakarta High Court rejected the government’s appeal of a civil ruling that found President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo negligent in failing to tackle Jakarta’s notorious air pollution.
Report after report indicates the rapidly growing problem of plastic waste, including marine plastic debris. While the puzzle of how to build a sustainable future has many pieces, one crucial element is often overlooked: intellectual property (IP) rights.
Transformative and collaborative inventions to drive sustainability in carbon-intensive sectors need to be prioritized. While technology can hasten the transition toward a more sustainable and circular economy, sharing of technology and knowledge, combined with adequate funding, is needed. IP rights can help.
IP rights are essential to enabling innovation and diffusion of sustainable technologies, improving collaboration and fostering prosperity in developing countries. Patented technologies are publicly disclosed, ensuring access to technical knowledge of inventions. IP rights grant their owners security against unauthorized use, providing them a source of revenue from exclusive rights.
Exclusive rights allow owners to prohibit others from using and benefiting from their inventions. But as technology transfer depends on the willingness of owners to share licenses and knowledge, lower-income countries have difficulty adopting sustainable technology.
With its low numbers of patent registrations and high-technological exports, Indonesia depends on technology transfer from higher-income countries. World Bank data show that in 2016-2020, the average number of patent applications was 899,900 in high-income countries and 38,740 in lower-middle-income countries.
Similarly, high-tech exports as a share of total manufacturing exports by high-income countries was 21 percent and by lower-middle income countries about 10 percent in the same period. Indonesia scores 1,800 and 8 percent on average for patent applications and high-tech exports respectively, lower than its lower-middle-income neighbors.
