Many people in Indonesia are working to decrease piracy and improve the protection of intellectual property rights, but there are still obviously a lot of problems as local companies are still able to get away with registering some ridiculous trademarks.
The drummer for legendary rock band The Beatles, Richard Starkey aka Ringo Starr, recently had representatives in Indonesia sue a local company named PT Asia Global Media for registering the brand name “Ringgo Star” with Indonesia’s Directorate General of Intellectual Property.
According to the lawsuit filed in the Central Jakarta District Court by attorney Nadia Am Badar, the director of Indonesia-based law firm Am Badar & Partners which is representing Ringo in Indonesia, Asia Global Media recently trademarked the “Ringgo Star” name along with four others (apparently the other trademarks registered were not Jon Lemmon, Pal McCarthy, etc).
According to the lawsuit filing, Ringo’s attorney is arguing that the “Ringgo Star” trademark is too similar to Ringo Starr, a name which many would say has something of a well-established international reputation.
“The plaintiff is a famous figure from the United Kingdom who goes by the stage name Ringo Starr,” Nadia wrote in the lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by KONTAN.
The lawsuit also notes that Asia Global Media registered the trademark for use with electronic media including music, meaning the use of the “Ringgo Star” name could easily cause confusion among consumers.
The lawsuit actually names the Directorate General of Intellectual Property as a co-defendant, presumably because they were negligent in allowing the trademark to be registered in the first place. The lawsuit was filed on February 19 and has already had four court hearings but representatives of Asia Global Media have yet to appear despite summons. The next court session in the case is scheduled for tomorrow and if Asia Global Media does not show up again we can guess that Ringo Starr can consider his trademark in Indonesia safe.
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