DJKI Urges Campuses and Small Businesses to File Designs Before Going Public
Photo: Thor_Deichmann / Pixabay
Indonesia's Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DJKI) has warned, in a release on 28 October 2026, universities, research bodies and businesses that showing a product design to the public before filing for protection can cause problems with the novelty requirement for industrial designs.
The message came at a two-day workshop and technical guidance session on 27–28 October 2026 at Universitas Prasetiya Mulya in Tangerang Regency, Banten. Sixty people took part, including academics, owners of micro and small businesses and staff from the Ministry of Law's Banten regional office.
Agung Damarsasongko, DJKI's Director of Copyright and Industrial Design, said design protection should be built into product development, not considered only after a product has been launched or marketed. He noted that student research, community projects and campus business incubators often produce designs worth protecting. Publishing those results without planning, he said, can compromise novelty.
DJKI design examiner Rizki Harit Maulana explained how registration supports commercialisation through licensing and university spin-off companies. Participants also discussed several practical issues:
- Ownership: who owns a design created jointly by a lecturer and a student, or by a university working with a small business.
- Logos on packaging: how logos fit into packaging designs.
- Scope of protection: the differences between copyright, trademarks and industrial design.
The technical sessions covered novelty searches, the difference between whole, partial and set design applications, drawing techniques, the Locarno product classification and e-filing. In one-to-one consultations, participants worked on product titles, descriptions of visual features and the scope of protection. They also raised already-published designs, graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and communal motifs used as ornaments.
DJKI's advice was straightforward: search existing designs, keep new designs confidential until filing, settle ownership in advance and prepare the application documents properly. For Indonesian start-ups that post product teasers on social media, the point is worth remembering. A post that goes up before the filing can count against the design.
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