Trademark Dispute, BMW Car Loses to BMW Clothing from Penjaringan

13 - November - 2016

The Supreme Court (MA) rejected the Judicial Review (PK) filed by the German car company, BMW. As a result, Henrywo Yuwijono can now breathe easy producing the clothing brand BMW, also known as Body Man Wear.

The case began when Beyerische Motoreen Werke (BMW) Aktiengesellschafft sued Henrywo, a resident of Muara Karang, Penjaringan, North Jakarta. The Munich, Germany-based company objected to Henrywo producing pants and shirts under the BMW brand.

As a global car company, BMW did not need to struggle to prove its brand's recognition. According to Fortune Global 500, the BMW brand ranks among the top 12 most respected and recognized brands worldwide.

Historically, BMW was established in 1917 for motorcycles and in 1928 for cars. This is vastly different from Henrywo's BMW brand, which was created in 2004 with brand number IDM 000016513.

Legally, BMW is also registered in over 150 countries worldwide, not only for automobiles but also for clothing, sports equipment, and fashion items.

The tide turned. On December 10, 2013, the Commercial Court at the Central Jakarta District Court (PN Jakpus) granted BMW's lawsuit. PN Jakpus declared the German BMW a well-known brand and ordered Henrywo to revoke the BMW (Body Man Wear) trademark, citing bad faith in its registration and substantial similarity to the German BMW.

Henrywo disagreed with the decision and filed an appeal. Unexpectedly, Henrywo's appeal was granted, and the Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit from the German BMW. The cassation ruling was made on October 27, 2014, under decision number 79 K/Pdt.Sus-HKI/2014.

BMW did not accept this and pursued a final legal remedy. However, this ultimate effort did not yield maximum results. The Supreme Court only changed the 'rejected' verdict to 'not accepted'.

"Declares the Plaintiff's lawsuit inadmissible," stated the panel of judges as reported on the Supreme Court's website on Friday (12/8/2016).

The panel reasoned that based on the Civil Chamber Plenary Meeting documented in Circular Letter No. 03/BUA.6/H.S/SP/XII/2015, it was agreed that lawsuits for the cancellation of trademarks with substantial similarity but for dissimilar goods must be declared 'inadmissible'. This Plenary Meeting used the legal argument that to date, there has been no Government Regulation (PP) as a follow-up to Article 6 paragraph 2 of Law Number 15 of 2001 concerning Trademarks.

In the BMW case, there is indeed a substantial similarity between the German BMW and Henrywo's BMW. However, these two brands are not for the same type of product; the German BMW is an automotive product, while Henrywo's BMW is a fashion product.

"Based on the aforementioned Plenary Meeting, previous Supreme Court decisions regarding identical trademarks for dissimilar goods will no longer be followed," ruled the panel chaired by Prof. Dr. Takdir Rahmadi with members I Gusti Agung Sumantha and Hamdi on May 11, 2016.

Source: detik.com

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