Arabika Java Sukapura Tasikmalaya coffee has been the most recent addition to the lineup of local Indonesian coffees that was granted Geographical Indication protection. The awarding ceremony was held Bandung, West Java, on December 22, 2022. Arabika Java Sukapura Tasikmalaya itself is a variety of Arabica coffee that has been grown exclusively within the Regency of Tasikmalaya, an administrative sub-division of the West Java Province of Indonesia. Including this new addition, so far there have been three coffee varieties with geographical indication protection that originated from the West Java Province.
In his address during the awarding ceremony, Director of Trademark and Geographical Indication of the Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DGIP), Kurniaman Telambanua, stated that the DGIP has awarded protection towards 121 geographical indications. 106 of the number are domestic-based while the rest is foreign.
Later in January 2023, the DGIP also issued a Notice of Recordation for Communal Intellectual Property Inventory towards genetic resources of “Tengkelesak Lenggang” fish, which is the green pino variety of the species scleropages formosus. The fish’s natural habitat is the River Lenggang that flows within the East Belitung Regency of the Bangka Belitung Province. The fish has been given conservation status “EN” or endangered, and now within full protection status from both the Ministry of Marine and Waters, and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.
Inclusion of this fish variety to the National Data Center of the Communal Intellectual Property (KIK) is a result of collaboration between DGIP and the Bangka Belitung Regional Office of the Ministry of Laws and Human Rights, and the Fisheries Agency of the Regency of East Belitung. The Notice of Recordation itself was delivered by the Regional Head of the Ministry, Harun Sulianto, to the Regent of East Belitung, Burhanudin. For the record, so far the Regency of East Belitung has successfully recorded 26 traditional cultural expressions, 16 traditional knowledges, and 3 genetic resources to the KIK National Data Center.
Recordation of traditional cultural expressions, traditional knowledges and genetic resources as communal IP to the KIK National Data Center itself is an initiative held by the Indonesian government through the Ministry of Laws and Human Rights as a form of defensive protection so as to provide proof of ownership that would protect traditional communities against unauthorized appropriation and unfair benefit sharing of their cultural assets.