This week, I decided to write my first open response to an article from a fashion lawyer, who wrote her counter-argument to my article here. This response serves as my responsibility for the Jakarta Globe.
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Dear Patricia,
Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and opinion with us. I greatly appreciate it. It has somewhat proved me that Fashion is such a sexy issue (I mean, something that we can actually discuss, not just something that appears glamorous and ‘shallow’).
First of all, I just want to underline that my article doesn’t intend to “support/encourage” copycats/counterfeiters (especially in Indonesia). I’m sorry if you got that impression, but when I said “copycats in Indonesia should not worry”, I was actually being cynical.
Secondly, I want to make it straight that when I said “Intellectual Protection”, I simply meant it for the “designs”, not the “brands” or anything related to it. Please carefully note that I wrote:
"That’s why, apart from the logo or trademark part, intellectual property protection is a bit impractical in this industry."
So yes, apart from the logo or trademark part, and please note that my theme was “Inspiration vs Plagiarism” -- something that is closely related to the design aspect.
Thirdly, I once wrote about this issue too for another media, of which, if you read it thoroughly, shows that I’ve never encouraged copycats/counterfeiters in Indonesia. The article is titled “Fashion Pirates Find Gold in Stylish Fakes”, and it can be accessed here. The article was originally 1,200-something-words, and intended for a special report. But the one you would read is not even 800 words because it was slashed due to an editorial decision to move it to the front page. So, again, sorry if the content couldn’t satisfy you as someone with an expertise in this area. If you read the article carefully, you will find that my opinion saying “intellectual protection is a bit impractical in this industry” simply derived from my past and current interviews on this matter (apart from the Joanna Blakley’s view).
In that “Fashion Pirate” article, on the last paragraph, I wrote:
"PT Mitra Adi Perkasa (MAP), Indonesia's leading retail marketer of brand-name products, said counterfeiting well-known designs was inevitable and difficult to prevent. 'It is difficult to control such practices. But as long as it doesn't greatly affect our sales, we won't bother taking further action,' said Ratih D. Gianda, MAP head of investor relations. "
A bit information, MAP is the franchise holder of several brands in Indonesia like ZARA, Topshop, Topman, Chloe, CK, Marks & Spencer, Dorothy Perkins, Giorgio Armani, Kipling, MaxMara, Massimo Dutti and many more. Thus, if even a big company like MAP chooses not to really care about the counterfeiting issue, then, I can safely say that IP would be useless to be applied in Indonesia (sure you can say the way around, but it’s better for you get some related quotes from people in the industry, the way I did with comments from five sources—three of them are fashion designers. Maybe some would say that I should have mentioned MAP’s comment in this JG article, but as a writer, I don’t want to appear lazy (copy-pasting my old interviews for another media to my new article for JG). Other than that, I had to respect Jakarta Globe’s rule stipulating that an article should be less than 800 words (and even with more than 800 words, I still found my article slashed here and there). I don’t know how did you get the privilege to write over 1,000 words for your article, but if I were allowed to do so, believe me, I would have put more interviews and insights. For an example, I would have written more about Anne Avantie’s experiences in IP case. For your information, she once believed in IP – she registered her designs, only to find out that it was all useless. She then made peace with copycats. And as for Daniel Mananta, he told me that the counterfeited products could never win the quality of his products, so he didn’t want to think about such a competition. You can say whatever you want, that designers are not OK with copycats in Indonesia, but I have my own interviews that proved the opposite :)
Fourthly, you wrote:
“Why be concerned about luxury Western brands whose only connection to Indonesia is a store used to sell their expensive goods. Why not be concerned about counterfeiters of local brands made by people you know and who have a legitimate connection to the country?”
Who said I only put concern on Western brands? Please take a look at my sentence carefully. I put weight on “low-end counterfeiters” and I mentioned “Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Fendi etc” simply because they made only as some examples. I would want to mention local brands like “Yongki Komaladi, Sophie Martin, etc”, but it would sound ridiculous as I couldn’t really find their copies. Yongki’s shoes are affordable enough at traditional markets (Rp 35,000, per pair from previous seasons).
Fifthly, you wrote:
“The IP mechanisms in Indonesia are limited. First to file — not first to use — is the policy. Anyone can register a trademark even if they are not associated with it, simply because they registered first. A man once registered the Prada trademark in Indonesia and Prada had to fight it.”
Yes, I mentioned about this story too in my Fashion Pirates article:
"A few years ago, of a dispute between Italy-based Prada S.A., owners of the Prada brand since 1913, and an Indonesian citizen Fahmi Babra. By registering the brand name Prada in Indonesia in 1995, Fahmi was allowed to use the Prada brand on his products. Prada S.A. took the case to court and was eventually named the official trademark owner of Prada in the country."
However, according to Ansori Sinungan, the director for copyrights at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, the policy you mentioned was a thing of the past. Now, he said, Indonesia is already in compliance with a World Trade Organization agreement to protect brand-name products. So there’s an update in the policy in Indonesia, and I expect you to have known this better.
I hope my explanations can serve you well, and that it can straighten the misunderstanding that can occur to other people reading your post (before reading mine).
Thank you, and best wishes.
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