Pursuant to Article 5 of the Trademark Law of 2001 stated that a Trademark shall not be registered if it contains any of the following elements :
(a) Is against the prevailing laws and regulations, religious morality, decency or public order;
(b) Is not distinctive;
(c) Has become public domain; or
(d) Is a description or related to goods or services being applied for registration. ((Undang-undang Merek, UU No. 15 Tahun 2001))
Elucidation of (a): The definition of against religious morality, decency and public order is that if the use of the sign affect the feeling, graciousness, restful situation or religious faith of the general public or particular community.
Elucidation of (b): A sign is deemed to be not distinguishable if it is too simple such as a line or a period, or too complicated that it does not clearly represent anything.
Elucidation of (c): One example of this is the sign of a skull over a crossing bone that has been commonly known as a sign of a danger.
Elucidation of (d): The Trademark is associated with or only mentions the goods or services being applied for registration, such as the “coffee” Trademark or a picture of coffee for coffee or coffee product, since it includes generic terms (The generic terms are words that describe goods or services that is filed). ((Tomi Suryo Utomo, Hak Kekayaan Intelektual (HKI) di Era Global Sebuah Kajian Kontemporer, Penerbit Graha Ilmu, Yogyakarta,2010, hlm. 212)) The Trademark in Indonesia can’t be registered if containing the Descriptive terms (The Descriptive terms are words that related to the filed goods or services). For example, we can’t use “SWEET” trademark for chocolate product, because the “SWEET” word describes the chocolate products that taste sweet in general. (WIPO-Trademark, 2006 : 7). ((Tomi Suryo Utomo, Hak Kekayaan Intelektual (HKI) di Era Global Sebuah Kajian Kontemporer, Penerbit Graha Ilmu, Yogyakarta,2010, hlm. 212))