Since last March, the controversial 2023 Omnibus Law on Job Creation has been officially enacted. As the word "Omnibus" suggests, the bill provided several important changes to wide-ranging sectors, including Patents.
Here are the updates given to Law No. 13/2016 on Patents as stipulated in the Omnibus Law:
Article 3 of the Patent Law stipulates the qualifications for a patent, or a simple patent. In Article 3, Paragraph (2) stipulates that simple patents are granted for new inventions, improvements to an existing product or process, and inventions susceptible to industrial application. The Omnibus Law added a paragraph that defines "improvements from existing products or processes." Moreover, in the newly added Article 3, Paragraph (3), what constitutes as improvements from an existing product or process includes "simple products, simple processes, and simple methods."
The next change is a more significant one. Article 20 of the Patent Law stipulates that a Patent holder must use the products they have patented or the processes they have patented in Indonesia. Furthermore, the manufacturing or usage must also encourage technology transfer, investment absorption, or the creation of jobs. Under Omnibus Law, the requirements are reduced only to either manufacturing, importing, or licensing of the patented products or products created from patented processes or methods. Gone are all the social" requirements concerning technology transfer, investment absorption, and job creation. Read more