(Publ. 16 FEB 2016) A local furniture company in Indonesia, Intan Khatulistiwa Esa Abadi, has managed to get IKEA:s registered trademark cancelled through a ruling from the Supreme Court of Indonesia. A lot of people are now wondering how a local company was able to successfully stop such a global and well known company as IKEA.

The reasoning behind the cancellation given by the Indonesia’s Supreme Court was that IKEA has not actively used its trademark, after the registration, in three consecutive years. IKEA received its trademark registration in Indonesia both in 2006 and 2010 for, among other things, furniture and household utensils. This was done in preparation for the scheduled opening of the store in Jakarta 2014.

PT Ratania Khatulistiwa, plaintiff and owner of the furniture company, had filed its application in 2013, but has not yet received approval. Despite this lack of registration, they managed to cancell IKEA’s registration. According to the Indonesian trademark law, there is a three year’s use requirement, whereas it is five years in the EU. There are also regulations in order to stop obvious reputation parasitism, i.e. “free riding”. One could question whether the Court has made a reasonable judgement in this instance. Perhaps the reason is that Intan Khatulistiwa Esa Abadi is “global known” in all of Indonesia …?

It remains to be seen how this dispute will be resolved. In the meantime, IKEA in Jakarta remains open…

Photo: IKEA Älmhult, Sweden
Own work