Indonesian Patent Law Amendments

Indonesia recently made a major revision to its patent law, which included several important changes to the patent application process, which officially came into effect on October 28, 2024.

• Removed “use of existing products” from unpatentable subject matter: This means that new uses of existing products may also be patentable, provided that all patentability criteria are met.
• Extension of the novelty grace period: The grace period for disclosure is extended from 6 months to one year.
• Elimination of Inventor Declaration: It is no longer required to submit an inventor declaration when filing a new patent application.
• Late filing of priority applications: Applicants may now file their applications late up to four months after the expiration of the priority deadline, subject to payment of the official fee to be published at a later date.
• Refine the rules on compulsory licensing: grant licenses based on expediency; impose restrictions on the scope and transferability of licenses; emphasize giving priority to domestic market needs; introduce new provisions on technological progress and economic impact.
• Re-filing and re-examination options: Applicants whose patent applications are deemed to have been withdrawn may now request a re-filing (re-examination) for an official fee of 50% of the applicable stage fee:
  • Formalities Examination Stage IDR 625,000
  • IDR 1.75 million for the substantive examination stage
• Cancellation of the second request for extension of time for submitting a response to an office action: It is no longer possible to apply for a second extension of time for submitting official documents.
• Emergency extensions available: Applicants may invoke force majeure or emergency circumstances (e.g. war, riots, natural disasters) to request an additional extension of up to 6 months, subject to supporting evidence.
• Annual fee late payment fee: There is a 6-month grace period for late payment of annual fees, but a 100% late payment fee is required, so the suspension mechanism under the old patent provisions no longer applies.
• Patent implementation statement: Patent holders must provide a statement on their patent implementation status before the end of each calendar year. However, no detailed rules have been released yet.
• Exemption from criminal prosecution and civil actions: Clarifies the issue of parallel imported medicines for public health and interest reasons, as well as the provisions of the Patent Law regarding immunity from criminal prosecution and civil actions related to patent infringement.

For the avoidance of doubt, patent applications filed before October 28, 2024 will continue to be processed and examined under the old patent rules.