1. Agreements were made on cooperation in ASEAN intellectual property at the meeting of the heads of the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

At the 20th Korea-China-Japan Intellectual Property Officer's video conference at InterContinental COEX Hotel in Seoul on December 1st, agreements were made to make efforts to resolve the intellectual property gap and ‘Korea-China-Japan + ASEAN intellectual property cooperation'. On the 15th of the last month, the RCEP, which was joined by the three countries of Korea, China, and Japan, contained 83 articles on intellectual property, and ASEAN countries needed a major revision of their own intellectual property laws in order to implement them. In addition, the Trilateral Intellectual Property Offices have agreed to establish a vision for cooperation for the next 10 years with the main task of promoting cooperation in Korea-China-Japan + ASEAN intellectual property, ▲ improving the examination system and practices of the three countries ▲ improving the accessibility and utilization of patent information owned by each country, etc, and agreed to adopt the vision at the upcoming summit.

2. The Korean Intellectual Property Office has established a legal support system for new technology design protection.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced on the 3rd that it is pursuing amendment of the Design Protection Act, a related law, in order to independently protect image designs in virtual reality and augmentation of new technologies. Under the current Design Protection Act, image designs that are projected onto external walls or spaces cannot be registered as image designs can only be protected if they are expressed on goods. In the recent era of digital revolution, new types of design products incorporating new technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are being released, and the industrial scale of new technology design is also growing.

The United States and the European Union are strengthening the protection of new technology designs such as Graphic Design (GUI) and Icons. Accordingly, the image design will be expanded to a new protection target so that independent protection is possible, and the online transmission of image design and the transfer or rental using recording media (USB, CD) will be included as an act of using the design right.

3. The Korean Intellectual Property Office expands what can be applied for partial design examination to 7 items.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced on the 30th that from December 1st, the number of items that can be applied for partial design examination will be expanded from the existing three items to seven items. The partial design examination system, which was applied only to design applications belonging to clothing, textile paper and stationery, which have a short fashion cycle and easy to imitate, will be extended to food, new products, packaging containers, jewelry and jewelry. This is to increase the effectiveness of the use of design rights by reviewing only certain requirements for the design application of the product and granting the right as soon as possible. In the case of the expanded design partial examination application, expedited examination is applied, and if there is no problem with the filing documents, registration can be obtained within 10 days from the filing date.

4. The Supreme Court ruled that Seol-bing has to return 900 million Won to a Chinese company since Seol-bing did not inform to the Chinese company that SEOLBING was already in business in China when Seol-bing signed a franchise business with the company.

The second part of the Supreme Court (Presiding Judge Ahn Chul-sang) said that in the appeal of a lawsuit for the return of unfair profits filed by Shanghai Abin Foods and Trade Co., Ltd. (Shanghai Abin Foods) against Seol-bing, it has confirmed the court case in which some of the plaintiffs won a ruling. In 2015, Seol-bing signed a franchise contract with Shanghai Abin Food, a Chinese food company. It was a contract for Shanghai Abin Foods to use the name of SEOLBING to recruit merchants in China, and Seol-bing decided to hand over the business right and receive 1 billion won. Since then, Shanghai Abin Foods has started operating a SEOLBING store in Shanghai, China. However, the Chinese authorities notified Shanghai Abin Foods that ‘because they used the same or similar company name without permission from another company, please be investigated.’ After deliberation, a decision to invalidate was made. At the time of signing the contract, there were many shaved ice makers in China similar to those of SEOLBING. In response, Shanghai Abin Foods filed a lawsuit claiming that Seol-bing did not inform him of this fact, and to return 900 million won in down payment and pay 10 million won in damages. In the Chinese court, Seol-bing won the first trial, but lost the second trial. In addition, the judge ruled that Seol-bing has to return the down payment of 900 million won to Shanghai Abin Foods stating “If there is no trademark registration in China and the exclusive license cannot be secured, the reputation of the business label cannot be used,” and “It will be remarkably difficult for Shanghai Abin Foods to recruit a franchise business operator in Shanghai.”