Design

Practice Areas

Overview

The Korean Design Law has two Examination system; Substantive Examination System (SES) and the Partial Substantive Examination System (PSES)

Under the PSES, applicants may get the registration within 3 or 5 months from the filing date and enjoy new procedures such as Multiple Application and Post-Grant Opposition for their convenience, without substantial examination. Unfortunately, the products applied to the NSES are a few. However, KIPO will gradually extend the scope of the products which are applied to the NSES.

Under the Korean Design Law, it is possible to protect (i) the image design such as computer icon and GUI, and the typeface that had been added as a statutory subject matter of the design registration. An applicant for design registration may request that the design be kept secret for a period designated in the request not exceeding three (3) years after the registration date. When requesting the early laying open of an application, however, the above request is deemed to have been withdrawn.

In order to file a design application in Korea, it is required to receive an order letter from client, containing the specific information for the design application to be filed in Korea.

The followings are also required at the time of filing:

(a) Information for Applicant and Designer
– The full name, address and nationality of each applicant, or, if the applicant is a company, the legal address of the company headquarter is required;
– the full name, address and nationality of each designer;
(b) *Formal drawings or photographs of the design;
(c) Power of Attorney, signed by the applicant or by the representative of the applicant company. General Power of Attorney is highly recommended;
(d) Priority Certificate of the home application, in order to claim Paris Convention priority;

Drawings appended to a design application should contain:

(i) the name of the article embodying the design; and
(ii) a description of the design and the gist of the design.

Drawings should contain a prospective view, a front view, a rear view, a right side view, a left side view, a top view, a bottom view and other views(e.g. a sectional view), if necessary or useful in describing the design. Where the article representing the design is of a flat shape, only the top and the rear views need to be included in the drawings.

Practice Areas

Design

The followings are also required at the time of filing:

Drawings appended to a design application should contain:

Flowchart for Korean Design Procedure