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Amendments to Trademark Laws

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Jun 16, 2015 (Newsletter Issue 9/15)
South Korea
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Trademark Examination Guidelines Changed


The newly amended Examination Guidelines ("Guidelines") of the Korean Intellectual Property Office ("KIPO") went into effect on January 1, 2015. The following are some of the more notable of the many changes made to the Guidelines.

1. Dilution as a new refusal ground
2. Consumer confusion as a basis for determining similarity
3. Applications filed by related applicants
4. Bad faith applications for imitation marks
5. Use of third party registered marks in the goods description
6. Registration of slogans
7. Miscellaneous

The new Guidelines make it easier for applicants to obtain a registration from KIPO by stating that priority claims may be accepted for applications even if they do not designate exactly the same goods/services as the previous application (previously, the marks and goods were required to be identical even if changes in one application were necessary to comply with the laws of other countries), and by permitting modifications to the trademark for "correction of obvious errors or size, [and] removal of minor portions."

The new Guidelines also provide protection not only for geographical indications ("GIs") currently protected under the Korea-European Union Free Trade Agreement, as well as GIs identified under the Korea-Canada Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect earlier this year.

For further information, please view the article of our contributors Ms Jee and Ms Kim from Kim & Chang here

Source: www.kimchang.com