Banyumas legislative council (DPRD) will ask for clarification regarding the patenting of mendoan, a well-known snack made of tempe (fermented soybeans) and seasoned flour, owned by a businessman.

National Awakening Party (PKB) faction head Ahmad Mustofa said that the council would summon the businessman, named Fuji Wong, to ask him to explain the basis of his patent on mendoan. The public has urged that the patent be revoked, arguing that the awarding of it was baseless.

“I know that the name of the brand is unclear and contravenes an article of the Brand Law [No. 15/2001], which forbids the registration of a public-owned name as a brand,” said Mustofa to thejakartapost.com on Saturday.

The name of mendoan, he asserted, belonged to Banyumas society, as well as Cilacap, Purbalingga, Banjarnegara and Kebumen.

A mendoan trader named Nurul, 45, was disappointed to find out that the mendoan name had been taken as a patented brand. He warned the government to revoke the patent, or see thousands of traditional mendoan sellers protest.

Another trader, Muhammad, 40, urged the government to revoke the patent, and Fuji Wong to voluntarily relinquish it.

“A patent right is granted for an invention that belongs to someone. And who is Fuji Wong? Before he was born, we already had mendoan. How dare he register for patent rights,” he said on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Fuji Wong said that he did not intend to personally control the patent rights of mendoan commercially, arguing that he would never sue thousands of mendoan producers even though he had owned the patent right for five years.

He claimed that his decision to register the brand was aimed at securing the name mendoan from being hijacked by foreign business entities, citing batik as an example, which was almost grabbed by Malaysia.

“I never meant to claim it for my personal use only. I [patented] it purely to prevent mendoan from being registered by foreign entities”, said Fuji to thejakartapost.com.