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Aug 30, 2016
Sung-Nam KIM, Kim & Chang, South Korea
Nayoung KIM, Kim & Chang, South Korea
First published on www.ip.kimchang.com

Comprehensive New Amendments to the Korean Trademark Ac...


Sung-Nam KIM, Kim & Chang, South Korea, Nayoung KIM, Kim & Chang, South Korea, First published on www.ip.kimchang.comThe National Assembly has recently approved a major amendment to the Korean Trademark Act ("Act"), which will go into effect on September 1, 2016. This is the first comprehensive amendment to the Act in 26 years.
Currently, a party must have legal standing in order to petition for cancellation of a mark due to non-use, which is usually established by doing business in the same industry as the designated goods/services of the challenged mark or owning an application that is similar or identical to the challenged trademark. By eliminating this standing requirement, the proposed amendment is expected to make it easier to cancel unused marks and thereby create a larger pool of available trademarks for new market entrants.
Currently, the Korean Intellectual Property Office will issue an office action for a pending application if there is a similar or identical senior registration or application at the time the pending application was filed. Even if the senior registration is subsequently removed from the  read more