Korean Patent Act Development of 2022

Major revisions to the South Korean Patent Act (KPA) came into effect on April 20, 2022. The period for filing an appeal against a rejection decision in Korea will be extended from 30 days to three months. Under the amended Korean Patent Act (KPA), applicants can save costs by avoiding time extensions that earlier had a narrow time period of 30 days. The time period was extended to three months from the date of receipt of a Notice of Final

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Protecting your Intellectual Property Rights in Korea: Avoid “Trying Different Things & Smoking Funny Things”

A popular song regularly played on the radio proclaims that in the summer of 1989 the songwriter, Kid Rock, was “trying different things and smoking funny things.”  If you have any exposure to the Korean market, do your business a favor and don’t be like the songwriter.  All business with any exposure to the Korean market must have a plan in place to protect their intellectual property.  Thus, for the sake of your company, at a bare minimum, you should

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Amendment to Korea’s Intellectual Property Registration System: Korea IP Law Updates

South Korean organizations, companies and startups will, likely, in the near future experience a quicker and increasingly more efficient Patent and Intellectual Property Registration System in Korea and internationally based on developments within the IP5. Top IP officials in Korea are gearing up, in order to help South Korean organizations, companies and startups register their Intellectual Property more efficiently.  It seems like the effort is a serious attempt to expedite approvals and lesson application burdens for those doing business in

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Basics to Successfully Outsourcing Production of your Product to Korea: Korea OEM Basics

So you have decided to outsource the manufacturing of your products to Korea. Good choice in choosing quality-focused Korea over quantity-focused China, but don’t make the bad choice of not considering basic basic legal due diligence necessary to protect your good name, technology, brand and the future of your business. If you plan on just dealing through a purchase order (PO) in Korea, you are heading down a path that may lead to a kick in the behind. The recession hit

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Korean Trademark Act Revised: Korean Trademark Act of 2017

The Korean Trademark Act is, often, criticized by scholars and Korean legal practitioners for not being an effective means of enforcing copyrights and for being overly cumbersome.  The new changes are a step in the right direction.  Korea promulgated on September 1, 2017 the revised Korean Trademark Act. The following are the major changes. Any party may file an action to cancel a a trademark for non-use under revised Korean Trademark Law This change shall, likely, increase the number of

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