IKEA Loses Court Battles over Brand Name in Indonesia
Based on the decision of the Jakarta Commercial Court and the Indonesian Supreme Court (after an appeal), the world's largest furniture retailer IKEA fails to own the right to use its brand name in Indonesia as Surabaya-based furniture company Ratania Khatulistiwa claimed the trademark for its acronym for Intan Khatulistiwa Esa Abadi. Although Inter IKEA System had registered the trademark "IKEA" with the Indonesian directorate-general of intellectual property both in 2006 and in 2010, Ratania Khatulistiwa successfully claimed that the global furniture giant had not used the trademark for commercial purposes for three consecutive years.
Although these rulings of the Jakarta Commercial Court and the Indonesian Supreme Court are 'old news', they started to appear in headlines in media worldwide on Friday (05/02) and Saturday (06/02) as relevant court documents were only uploaded on the website of the Supreme Court a few days ago. Already in 2014 the Jakarta Commercial Court granted the right to use the IKEA trademark to the Surabaya-based company. At the appeal in May 2015, the Indonesian Supreme Court confirmed the ruling of the Jakarta Commercial Court. Under Indonesian trademark law, a registered trademark is deleted when not being used for commercial purposes for three straight years.
In media it is being speculated that the Surabaya-based firm deliberately 'hijacked' the brand name of the furniture giant which is operated in Indonesia by publicly-listed Hero Supermarket through a franchise agreement. In such case, it could be possible for Hero Supermarket to buy the trademark from Ratania Khatulistiwa in order to regain the IKEA brand in Indonesia. Hero opened its first IKEA store in Indonesia (Tangerang, West Java) in October 2014. Meanwhile, the Surabaya-based rattan furniture company had registered the IKEA trademark in December 2013. According to a statement on the website of Ratania Khatulistiwa, the company was established in 1989.
Despite the ruling, both Inter IKEA System (the worldwide IKEA franchiser) and Hero Supermarket emphasized that the existing IKEA store in Tangerang will continue its operations as usual.
IKEA was founded in Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad. However, since the early 1980s the Group is owned by a Netherlands-based foundation.
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