According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), any person who uses or intends to use a trademark in the Republic of Korea, including foreign entities, may be entitled to register and protect his/her product and service marks in Korea.
To register a trademark, applicants need to fill out and submit a trademark application with the KIPO. When applying, consider, first of all, that the official language of a trademark application in South Korea is Korean. The application will be treated as if it had never been submitted if the application is not written in the local language. Alternatively, a foreign applicant may describe the identification in Korean and English (e.g. 모자(hat), 바지(pants)).
Basic requirements for the application include the date of submission, the name and address of the applicant -who is the person that takes the procedure- or the name of an executive officer if the applicant is a juridic person.
The trademark application also must also contain representations of the trademark (usually an image file in JPG format), the designated goods/services and class thereof following the Nice Classification, and the country and filing date of the priority application if priority is claimed. The priority document should be submitted within 3 months from the filing of the trademark application in Korea.
Since South Korea is not a first-to-use jurisdiction, a “proof of use” is not required for trademark application. Meaning is not necessary to prove the use of a trademark to apply for registration. However, if it is not used for 3 years, a registered trademark can be subject to a non-use cancellation.
A legal document known as a Power of Attorney (POA) will be also required to give a law firm/an agent attorney the power to act on behalf of the trademark applicant, and thus file the application. It is recommended to submit a copy of the POA simultaneously with the application. No notarization nor official legalization of this document is required. If not submitted upon filing, KIPO will issue a note of amendment and specify a time period for the applicant to submit it.
On a side note, trademark applications should be submitted following a well-thought-out strategy in order to be successfully registered. The distinctiveness of a mark is determinant when defining the trademark registrability. Additionally, for a trademark application, you must designate the goods and/or services that are related to your business field. The designated goods and classes should contemplate your current and future business situation in order to obtain the scope of rights you need.
To understand the designation of goods and services, and learn how to develop a clever and thoughtful strategy to successfully register your trademark application, we recommend reading the following article:
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