Civil Servant Investigator of IPR

In the Indonesian IP system, there exists the so-called "Civil Servant Investigator of Intellectual Property Rights". In Bahasa Indonesia, it is called Penyidik Pegawai negeri Sipil or commonly kown as PPNS. The existence of PPNS is regulated in almost all laws on intellectual property rights (See Article 129 of Law on Patent, Article 89 of Law on Mark, Article 71 of Law on Copyright, Article 16 of Law on Trade Secret, Article 53 of Law on Industrial Design, Article 41 of Law on Layout Design of Integrated Circuit)

Functions and duties of PPNS are as follows:

• to conduct examination of the truth of reports relating to criminal offences in the field of intellectual property rights;
• to conduct examination of persons or legal entities suspected of committing criminal offences in the field of Patents based on the reports as referred to in letter a;
• to collect information and evidence from persons or legal entities in connection with criminal offences in the field of intellectual property rights;
• to conduct examination of books, records and other documents relating to criminal offences in the field of intellectual property rights;
• to inspect locations on which evidence, books, records, and other documents to be found, as well as to confiscate materials and goods resulting from infringements which can used as evidence in the criminal trials in the field of intellectual property rights;
• to request expert assistance in the scope of carrying out the duties of investigation of criminal offences in the field of intellectual property rights;

PPNS shall inform the investigating officers at the State Police of the Republic of Indonesia about the initiating and the result of an investigation, and forward the results of an investigation to the Public Prosecutor through the investigating officers at the State Police of the Republic of Indonesia in view of the provision of Article 107 of Law no. 8 of 1981 on Criminal Proceedings.