Indonesia continues to record growth in industrial design applications, yet its legal system has not provided equally effective protection for registered designs. This condition creates a gap between the development of industrial design regulation and its implementation in protecting designers and rights holders. This study examines the structural weaknesses of Indonesia’s industrial design protection system and develops an adaptive and integrated model for legal reform. The study applies a sociolegal approach by integrating regulatory, empirical, and comparative analyses. It examines legislation, judicial decisions, registration data, and institutional practices and compares the Indonesian system with the legal frameworks implemented in Japan and Malaysia. The findings reveal that regulatory inconsistency, institutional limitations, and implementation problems collectively weaken industrial design protection in Indonesia. The current registration mechanism provides limited substantive examination, which increases legal uncertainty and creates potential conflicts between industrial design and copyright protection, particularly in determining originality and ownership. Complex administrative procedures, ambiguous regulatory provisions, limited institutional capacity, and insufficient public understanding further reduce the effectiveness of protection. The comparative analysis shows that Japan and Malaysia have developed institutional and administrative mechanisms that offer relevant approaches for strengthening Indonesia’s system.
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