1. Product imitation and trade secret infringement are also mediated by the Industrial Property Rights Dispute Mediation Committee 

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced that from September 5th, with the enforcement of the revised Invention Promotion Act, acts of unfair competition and trade secret disputes are subject to mediation by the Industrial Property Rights Dispute Mediation Committee. Targets are disputes involving imitation of other people's product types or illegal use of ideas, and infringement of business secrets such as corporate sales strategies, bidding plans, and customer lists. The industrial property rights dispute mediation system does not require an application fee, and the process is completed within 3 months, enabling the dispute to be resolved early. If mediation is established, the same effect of settlement in the judicial as a result of the final judgment of the court takes effect, and if the agreement is not fulfilled, the enforcement procedure may proceed.

2. Significantly eased requirements for submitting drawings for design applications to the KIPO 

As a major amendment to the Enforcement Regulations of the Design Protection Act, which greatly eased the requirements for submitting design drawings from the application on September 1, design applications are made easier, such as allowing the submission of the font file itself when applying for character design. Accordingly, submission of the font file itself (TTF · True Type Font) is allowed in the future when applying for font design. Font design refers to a set of font designs made in a form with common characteristics for use in recording, marking, or printing. TTF is an essential and representative font file format for font design development, and the form is maintained even if the font size is changed. Along with this, in the case of submitting a drawing in a three-dimensional (3D) file and correcting it when applying for a design, it is possible to submit a drawing in a two-dimensional (2D) file in the future. In addition, even when a drawing is submitted as a two-dimensional file, correction by a three-dimensional drawing is also allowed. Two-dimensional flat files include 'TIFF' and 'JPEG', and three-dimensional three-dimensional files include '3DS', 'DWG', 'DWF', 'IGES', and '3DM'.

3. Intellectual Property Loan Interest Rate Cuts by Korean Intellectual Property Office 

In order to help small and mid-sized companies suffering from the re-proliferation of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), from September, the loan interest rate for the intellectual property will be lowered by 1.75% → 1.25% on loans for intellectual property expense and 3.25% → 2.25% on loans for management fund. Accordingly, in the case of loans for intellectual property expense applied by subscribing companies, the interest rate of 1.25%, a 0.5%p cut compared to the previous one, and a 1.0%p cut, 2.25% loans for management fund, will be applied temporarily for one year. The Intellectual Property Credit Program is an intellectual property financial system introduced to alleviate the burden of intellectual property expense for small and medium-sized companies arising from domestic and overseas patent disputes and overseas applications. After starting the business on August 29 last year, about 4,000 companies have joined in a year, receiving favorable responses from small and medium-sized companies.

4. Successive recognition of 'famous trademark'..."Invalid registration of 'M·CM·C' as similar trademark of 'MCM'“ 

The famous fashion brand MCM won the trial for cancellation of the trademark registration invalidation lawsuit filed by the small and medium-sized miscellaneous goods brand M·CM·C. The 5th Division of the Patent Court (Presiding Judge Seung-Ryeol Seo) ruled over the plaintiff in a repatriation trial to destroy the trademark registration invalidation lawsuit filed by Trias Holding AG, the trademark owner of MCM, against Mick McLab.

In May 2017, MicMac Lab registered a trademark in the form of a combination of 'M·CM·C' and 'MICMAC LAB' at the bottom, and sold various bags, wallets, and handbags. The 'MCM' trademark was registered in 2004, before this.

The Supreme Court said, "The upper English letters ('M·CM·C') of the registered trademark of Micmac Lab are quite large and thick, so they have strong discrimination, and consumers pronounce it as 'MCMC', so there is no big difference from 'MCM'." The case was returned to the patent court after breaking the court case that had ruled against it.

It was judged that 'MCM' is a 'famous trademark' widely known to consumers, and that the product sold by the two brands and the consumer group overlap, causing misunderstandings and confusion among consumers.

The judiciary decided that "considering MCM's sales, advertising performance, number of stores, and related reports, the 'MCM' trademark corresponds to an already remarkably recognized trademark by consumers at the time of filing for 'M·CM·C'."