As is known, a brand in a business activity serves to introduce the products or services offered to consumers. Not only that, brands are also used to distinguish products or services offered by one business from another.
Then, does that mean the brand can only be used by one party? What if the mark is used by multiple parties or multiple businesses? Is this possible in the law? It turns out that you can. Director of Trademarks and Geographical Indications at the DJKI of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, Kurniaman Telaumbanua, explained that businesses have the opportunity to develop their business together, through the use of collective trademarks. This is as reported through the official website of Bisnis.com on Friday (10/02/2023). What is a collective mark and what distinguishes an ordinary mark from a collective mark? Check out the further explanation here!
What is a Collective Brand?
In Law No. 20 of 2016 concerning Trademarks and Geographical Indications (MIG Law), a collective mark is known. Where according to Article 1 point 4 of the MIG Law, a collective mark is a mark used on goods and/or services with the same characteristics regarding the nature, general characteristics, and quality of goods or services as well as their supervision that will be traded by several persons or legal entities together to distinguish from other similar goods and/or services. So that a trademark is possible to be used by several businesses, companies, or several parties. As an important note, collective trademarks have the potential to help people in a group, community, village, or village in protecting their local products. Reporting from the BP Lawyers article, a collective mark is a type of mark that is applied to goods and/or services that have similarities in terms of:
- Characteristic traits.
- General characteristics.
- Quality of goods or services.
Basic Differences between Common Trademark and Collective Trademark
A trademark functions as a marker of distinction between products or services produced by one entity or legal entity (company) and products or services produced by other similar entities or legal entities. Hence, these similar products or services require an identity to distinguish between them. Meanwhile, collective marks have the role of distinguishing the geographical origin or distinct characteristics of the products or services produced by several persons or legal entities, who use the same mark together. In other words, the mark provides certain guarantees about the quality of the goods and services provided. This is as stated by Sudargo Gautama in his book entitled Indonesian Trademark Law.
Example of Collective Trademark Application
In order to understand collective trademarks, here is an illustration of a collective trademark application. In a village, there is a group of people who produce handicraft products from used goods. Eventually, they agreed to register a collective mark under the name “Cantika Impresi” with the DJKI of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights. Therefore, those who are members of the group can use this collective mark together.
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If there are other individuals who are interested in using the brand, they can join the group officially first to avoid being penalized.
Then, what are the requirements for collective trademark registration?
In order to protect the trademark as one of the objects of intellectual property, people need to register a collective trademark owned. However, against collective trademarks there are registration provisions in Article 46 paragraph (1) of the MIG Law which states that an application for registration of a trademark as a collective trademark can only be accepted if the application clearly states that the trademark will be used as a collective trademark. The contents of the collective trademark application include (Article 4 paragraph (2) of Law 20/2016):
- Date, month, and year of application;
- Full name, nationality, and address of the applicant;
- Full name and address of the proxy if the application is submitted through a proxy;
- Color if the mark applied for registration uses color elements;
- The name of the country and date of the first request for the mark in the case of an application filed with priority rights; and
- Class of goods and/or class of services and description of the type of goods and/or type of services.
In addition, based on Article 46 paragraph (2) of the MIG Law, an application for a collective mark must be accompanied by a copy of the terms of use of the collective mark, which basically contains the following matters:
- The nature, general characteristics, or quality of goods and/or services to be produced and traded;
- Supervision of the use of collective marks; and
- Sanctions for violating the provisions of collective brand use.
Furthermore, the registered collective trademark will be examined for completeness of requirements such as other trademark registration as stipulated in Article 4 through Article 7 and Article 46 of the MIG Law and also substantively examined as stipulated in Articles 23 and 24 of the MIG Law.
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That’s the full explanation about collective trademarks. So, for KH Pals who are currently also running business activities together in a group or community, then don’t forget to protect your collective brand before it’s too late! Moreover, now brand registration is also easier thanks to professional assistance such as Kontrak Hukum. Yes, as a digital legal platform, we have been trusted by thousands of companies and MSMEs in Indonesia to fulfill their business needs, including official brand registration to the DJKI Kemenkumham.
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No need to worry because trademark registration at Kontrak Hukum is carried out by professional experts registered with the DJKI so that it is guaranteed to be safe, and there is a trademark analysis process first. For more information, visit the KH Services – Trademark page. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask KH for a free consultation or send a direct message (DM) to Instagram @kontrakhukum.
