ABSTRACT
The Pengadilan Niaga or Indonesian Commercial Court was initially created as an insolvency forum in 1998, at the height of the Asian Financial Crisis, arguably under International Monetary Fund pressure. But it was also part of a longer term discussion concerning the creation of specialized courts, and by 2000-1 its jurisdiction had been expanded to include intellectual property matters. The Commercial Court is commonly viewed as having failed in mastering Indonesia’s widespread insolvency problems brought on by the Asian Financial Crisis, and bankruptcy case filings declined precipitously by 2003-4 as potential litigants voted with their feet. But in the same general timeframe, intellectual property cases filed in the Court began to increase in number. The same Court (and often the same judges) who were criticized for their insolvency case decisions then garnered relative praise and increased case filings in the intellectual property area. Thereafter, what few outsiders have realized is that intellectual property cases levelled off around 2004-5, while insolvency cases have resurged, even while their composition changed.
