Indonesia Targets Four Months for Trademark and Industrial Design Applications: What Applicants Should Know

By Imaduddin

Photo: Basti93 / Pixabay

Indonesia's Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DJKI) has shortened its service target again. In an announcement dated 30 September 2026, it said that trademark and industrial design applications received from 1 October 2026 are targeted for completion within four months at most. This is the second cut in about six weeks: applications received from 18 August 2026 were given a five-month target.

For foreign brand owners used to long waits for an Indonesian registration, four months would be a big improvement. It is still a service target rather than a statutory deadline, and the conditions attached to it matter.

How the timeline has shrunk

DJKI's release sets out the history. Under Law No. 20 of 2016 on Marks and Geographical Indications as first enacted, the registration process could take up to nine months. The Job Creation Law shortened it, and DJKI's target became six months. The target fell to five months for applications received from 18 August 2026 and to four months for those received from 1 October 2026. DJKI's August release also named Minister of Law Regulation (Permenkum) No. 5 of 2026 as one of the current legal bases for trademark registration services.

For industrial designs, the September release describes the full process under Law No. 31 of 2000 on Industrial Designs, from administrative examination to certificate, as taking about 12 months, with substantive examination alone taking about six. The August release put the total under DJKI's earlier service standard at about 16.5 months. The four-month target for designs applies where nothing holds the file up, and DJKI gives an objection as an example.

Director General Hermansyah Siregar said four months is not the end of the effort, but that shorter times would require amendments to the Marks Law and the Industrial Designs Law.

The statutory steps for trademarks

The legal steps for a trademark application have not changed, and they explain why four months is close to the minimum under current law.

An application receives a filing date once the minimum requirements are met (Article 13). DJKI must publish it in the Trademark Gazette within 15 days of the filing date, and publication lasts two months (Article 14). During publication, any party may file a written opposition, supported by reasons and evidence (Article 16). The applicant may file a rebuttal within two months of the date the opposition is sent to it (Article 17).

Substantive examination comes next. The Job Creation Law rewrote Article 23 (the amended text appears in Law No. 11 of 2020). Where no opposition is filed, substantive examination starts after the publication period ends and must be completed within 30 days. Where there is an opposition, examination must be completed within 90 days. If the examiner refuses the application, the applicant has 30 days from the date of the notice to respond in writing (Article 24).

Taken together, 15 days to publication, two months of publication and 30 days of examination come to a little under four months. The four-month target therefore assumes clean formalities, no opposition and no examiner objection. An opposition alone, with a two-month rebuttal window and a 90-day examination period, takes a file well past four months.

How Indonesia compares

DJKI's August release compared its five-month target with trademark processing times it had compiled for other offices: seven to 12 months in Japan, seven to nine in China, 10 to 14 in South Korea, about nine in Singapore and 12 to 18 in the United States. Those are DJKI's own estimates, and practice in each office varies with the file.

Practical points for foreign applicants

Get the application right on day one. Article 18 allows corrections only to the name and address of the applicant or its representative. Errors in the mark, the class or the list of goods and services cannot be fixed by correction. A faster process leaves even less time to notice a problem before the file reaches examination.

Plan for the opposition window. The two-month publication period is fixed by statute and has not been shortened. Owners who rely on oppositions to stop copycat filings need Gazette monitoring in place. Once a conflicting mark is registered, the main remedy is a cancellation lawsuit at the Commercial Court (Article 76), which takes longer and costs more than an opposition.

Be ready to answer refusals quickly. The 30-day response period under Article 24 is short, especially when instructions have to pass through local counsel to a client in another time zone. Collecting evidence of use or distinctiveness before filing makes a fast answer possible.

Think about use after registration. Article 74 allows a third party to seek removal of a mark that has not been used for a set period from the date of registration or last use. The Constitutional Court extended that period from three to five consecutive years in Decision No. 144/PUU-XXI/2023. An earlier registration date means that period also starts earlier.

Check how your filing route is treated. The DJKI releases refer to applications received from the start dates, and they do not say how international registrations designating Indonesia under the Madrid Protocol fit within the new targets. Applicants using that route should not assume the four-month figure applies to them until DJKI says so.

For industrial designs, the same planning applies. DJKI's own wording makes the four-month target depend on the absence of objections, so a design that attracts one should be expected to take longer.

Sources

• DJKI, "Mulai 1 Oktober, Merek dan Desain Industri Selesai 4 Bulan" (30 September 2026), in Indonesian
• DJKI, "Mulai 18 Agustus, DJKI Targetkan Pendaftaran Merek dan Desain Industri Selesai Lima Bulan" (18 August 2026), in Indonesian
• Law No. 20 of 2016 on Marks and Geographical Indications, English translation (ARISE+ / EU)
• Law No. 11 of 2020 on Job Creation, text of the amended Article 23 of the Marks Law (Wikisource)
• Tilleke & Gibbins, "Indonesian Court Extends Trademark Non-Use Period" (Decision No. 144/PUU-XXI/2023)