IKEA Loses to Local Copycat
One 'bogeyman' for entrepreneurs in Indonesia is the lack of legal certainty. Businesses must not only deal with constantly changing regulations, they must also accept court rulings in trade disputes that are often unjust. The finding against Inter Ikea, a world-class furniture company from Sweden known as IKEA, in its legal battle with Ratania Khatulistiwa, a furniture company from Surabaya using the brand ikea, at the appeals court is the latest example.
It is essentially a simple matter: a difference in the interpretation of a 'dormant' brand. Ratania filed a lawsuit against IKEA at the Jakarta district court in December 2013. The subsidiary of the Kedaung Group from Surabaya held the view that the IKEA label for class 20 items (accessories, mirrors, picture frames and items made from wood and rattan) and class 21 items (household goods from pottery) had expired. Ratania asked for these items to be removed from the directorate-general of rights over intellectual property's list of items.
February 9, 2016
One 'bogeyman' for entrepreneurs in Indonesia is the lack of legal certainty. Businesses must not only deal with constantly changing regulations, they must also accept court rulings in trade disputes that are often unjust. The finding against Inter Ikea, a world-class furniture company from Sweden known as IKEA, in its legal battle with Ratania Khatulistiwa, a furniture company from Surabaya using the brand ikea, at the appeals court is the latest
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