Ikea loses trademarks in Indonesia

An Ikea franchisor has lost two trademarks in Indonesia after a local furniture company was handed victory by the country’s Supreme Court.

The court said that the marks, owned by Inter Ikea Systems, should be rescinded following a challenge by PT Ratania Khatulistiwa, a company based in the city of Surabaya, which manufactures rattan furniture. Rattan is made from palm.

Ikea opened its first store in Indonesia in 2014.

Separately, PT Ratania had applied to register a trademark for the term ‘Ikea’ in December 2013. In this case the trademark was an acronym for Intan Khatulistiwa Esa Abadi, which refers to the rattan industry. However, that trademark application was rejected.

According to the Associated Press, because Ikea did not actively use its trademarks commercially in three consecutive years after registration, they could be cancelled under Indonesia’s trademark law.

When Ikea began to construct its maiden Indonesian store in the capital city Jakarta in 2014, PT Ratania tried to revoke the trademarks at a lower court and won.

Ikea appealed against the ruling, but the country’s Supreme Court, the Mahkamah Agung, also ruled against it and revoked the two trademarks owned by the franchisor.

However, according to a spokesperson from the franchisor, the ruling does not affect the store's operation in Indonesia, as despite losing two trademarks, it still owns exclusive rights for the term covering other classes.

The ruling was handed down in May last year but only became public after it was published on the court’s website on Thursday, February 4.

One of the three judges did rule in favour of Ikea because of the size difference between the two companies, and because the 'Ikea' marks were acronyms for the company’s founder Ingvar Kamprad and a farm called Elmtaryd in the village of Agunnaryd where he grew up.