Awan purchased some labels in Gramedia the other day. The brand made me chuckle, because it is so typical of Indonesia's intellectual property (IP) climate. The cat and mouse depicted on the packaging are (you guessed it) Tom and Jerry, characters created by Hanna and Barbera for MGM in the 1940s. The original cartoon series won seven academy awards. I grew up on Tom and Jerry cartoons, which generally depicted a smart alec mouse getting the better of a dim-witted but persistent cat. I hated that mouse.
 
In 1975, an Indonesian called Nurhayati Ninging registered Tom and Jerry Self Adhesive Lables (sic) as a trademark. There was nothing wrong with this per se because the trademark was only comprised of words. As far as I can tell, MGM hadn't registered Tom and Jerry as a trademark (at least not in Indonesia). But then in the early 1990s, someone called Henky Wahya registered a range of Tom and Jerry trademarks which were obvious copies of Tom and Jerry cartoon characters.
 
Today Tom and Jerry adhesive labels are widely available in Gramedia, Office 2000 and other national chains. The brand is built on someone else's IP. MGM could probably get the trademark registrations cancelled, but why should they have to?
 
What do you think? What's the solution?