Ride-hailing services company Gojek along with its founder Nadiem Makarim were sued over an alleged copyright infringement. The lawsuit was filed by Hasan Azhari on 31 December. 

In the lawsuit, Hasan asked the court to punish Gojek by paying him royalties amounting to Rp24.9 trillion as well as a Rp10 trillion compensation. Hasan claims ownership over the idea of a similar online ride-hailing service which he invented before Gojek was founded. 

In detail, he shared that in 2008-2011, he created a business model in which people could order his ojek service online by sending him messages. He also promoted his services through a blog and social media Facebook called Ojek Bintaroonline. 

Hasan's attorney Rochmani claimed that Hasan had a copyright certificate which was issued in December 2008 with registration number 000200452.

“This copyright is protected by the government. So if anyone commercially uses this [for their own] creation, we feel disadvantaged,” said Rochmani in an interview session. 

In response, as reported by a local news outlet, Gojek Chief Corporate Affairs Nila Marita said on 4 January that they have not received any official notification regarding the lawsuit. She also added that the claim is unfounded. 

“Drawing from our initial observations, we find that the claim is unfounded. Gojek always runs its business in accordance with the existing law,” stated Nila.

The copyright protection system does not protect ideas. It doesn't matter who came up with the idea first, as long as it is fixed in a tangible form then the person who fixed the idea first will get the protection.

Copyright protection in computer programmes demands the existence of source code and object code in creation as the form of expression which underlies the presence of copyright protection. Source code is interpreted as codes that contain instructions for the computer to run certain programmes, while the object code is the result of the translation of the code into machine language for the programme to run.