1. KIPO provides counterstrategies to the preoccupancy of a foreign trademark without permission and the distribution of online counterfeit products
The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) held a ‘ 2019 education program to strengthen intellectual property (IP) rights of Korean companies that have advanced or will advance to foreign countries’.
This program was prepared for Korean companies that have advanced or will advance to foreign countries so as to strengthen the capability to respond to the preoccupancy of a trademark without permission and the distribution of online counterfeit products in foreign countries.
In the education to respond to the preoccupancy of a trademark without permission, a detailed explanation was provided as to the method of sharing with Korean companies the ‘research result on the actual condition of trademarks which seem to be preoccupied without permission in foreign countries, by using the global trademark DB ’ which was published in October 2019, and the method of checking whether any damages are caused by the preoccupancy of a trademark without permission in foreign countries, by using the global trademark DB.
Further, counter strategies were provided for Korean companies to win in disputes through the analysis of the judicial precedents of trademark disputes in the franchise businesses having many damage cases due to the preoccupancy of a trademark without permission.
Further, the education progressed on how to respond to the distribution of counterfeit products in foreign online markets. The counter strategies were introduced to Korean companies, based on the features of major online shopping malls and the IP protection systems in China and the South East area where Korean companies have mainly advanced, and the in-depth education focused on practice was provided to the companies which in advance applied for such education.
2. KIPO has reorganized KIPRIS which is a Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service in a simple design focused on search
KIPO has newly reorganized the homepage of KIPRIS (www.kipris.or.kr).
KIPRIS is an IP information search service for users that can search, without fees, information related to domestic and foreign IP rights including patents, trademarks, etc. which are held by KIPO.
This reorganization was focused on the intuitive and systematic design layout so that the service can be more easily and conveniently used, by positively collecting the actual use, the satisfaction survey and the opinions of the users including monitor groups, etc.
First of all, considering a great number of the users of the search service, the search window in the main screen is now enlarged, the service usage method and the content focused on search are positioned in the front, and a search menu for a beginner is moved to the center to be easily found.
Further, the previously complicated menu becomes simple, the color configuration is changed to be consistent, and the information transmission and readability by changing the English menu into Korean are greatly improved.
3. KIPO held a ‘2019 IP protection conference’
KIPO and Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) held the ‘2019 IP protection conference’ in Seoul, to inform the importance of IP rights upon advancing to foreign countries.
This conference on the subject, ‘New export growth engine using IP’, was attended by about 400 people including those related to domestic and foreign companies, IP experts, etc. and consisted of three (3) sessions.
The first session on ‘IP utilizing and responding plans by the stages of company growth’ provided the plans to secure the global competition of Korean companies by sharing the know-how to file foreign patent applications and to build portfolios and theforeign IP strategies including investment attraction and profit creation though patents.
The second session presented the IP issues related to the Korean cultural content industry which has spread to the world by the Hallyu (Korean) wave. In this regard, the performance of KIPO to increase the export competitiveness of Korean companies was introduced in reply to the ‘foreign distributors taking advantage of Hallyu’ whichare disguised as Korean companies or sell Korean products, thereby misleading foreign consumers.
In the last session, the patent attorneys of IP-DESK located in LA and Ho Chi Minh introduced the IP trends and IP laws and systems of the US and Vietnam and guided the plans to respond to the major IP-related difficulties.
4. For the fourth straight year, KIPO has served as a vice-presidency in the WIPO international design meeting and proposed the Korean language as an official language
According to KIPO, a KIPO officer resident in the Switzerland was elected as a vice-presidency in an 8thmeeting of ‘Working Group on the Legal Development of the Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs’, which was held in the headquarters of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, the Switzerland.
Since the Republic of Korea signed, it has served as a vice-presidencyfrom 2015 and for the fourth straight year by this election.
The number of international design applications filed by the Republic of Korea has kept a 3rd to 4th in the world ranking, leading the global design system as a powerful designcountry. Since the Korean use of the Hague system is high, designating the Korean language as an official language was proposed in this meeting, so that the Korean language can be used in international design applications.
|
