Your PT name does not protect your brand

Two things that are often taken for one

When you set up a PT, the company name is checked and approved. It is reasonable to assume the name is now safe.

It is not. What you received is a legal entity name — your company's identity as a legal person. What protects your trading name, logo and product names in the market is a merek (trademark), and that is registered separately.

You can own a PT called "Sinar Abadi" and still lose the right to the mark "Sinar Abadi" for your products — because someone else registered it first.

First to file wins

In Indonesia, trademark rights arise from registration, not from use.

Which means: however long you have used the name, however many customers know it, if it is not registered your position is open. Whoever files first holds the certificate, and you are the one who has to litigate to get it back — with an uncertain outcome and a cost far above the registration fee.

We see this pattern repeat on businesses that are growing: the moment a name starts to be recognised, it becomes worth registering to someone else.

Classes — the part most often got wrong

A trademark is not registered "for everything". It is registered per class of goods or services.

If you register a mark in a food class, then next year open a beverage line or run training courses under the same name, that new line is not automatically protected.

So the class decision has to be made at the start, against your expansion plan for the next two to three years. Adding a class later means a new application and a new fee.

Cost is also per class. One mark in three classes means three times the fee.

Before you pay anything

Run a search first. If a mark that is identical or substantially similar already exists for similar goods or services, your application can be refused — and the fee you paid is not refunded.

This step is cheap and quick. Skipping it is the most common way to waste a registration fee.

What you need to decide

1. Which name actually carries the value — the PT name, the outlet name, the product name, or the app name? Register the one your customers see.
2. Which classes you genuinely sell in — now, and in your two-year plan.
3. Whether your business qualifies as micro or small — the official fee is far lower, and there is a supporting letter to prepare.
4. Whether something similar already exists — checked before you pay, not after.

Written 2026-07-28. Rules change — if you are reading this long after that date, confirm before you act on it.