SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Dongju Kwon, Chulgun Lim, Sejung Lee and Yoon Sun Kim, Yoon & Yang LLC
5.5 Legal Remedies Against the Decision of the Trade Mark Office If KIPO accepts the opposition, it simultaneously renders a refusal decision on the application. In such cases, the applicant may appeal against the refusal decision to IPTAB within three months from the date of receiving a copy thereof. Conversely, if KIPO rejects the opposition, it ren - ders a registration decision. In such cases, the opponent may apply to IPTAB for the invalida - tion of the registration. Direct appeals against the opposition decision itself are not permitted. IPTAB operates under a single-tier system. For decisions involving opposition, revocation or invalidation, a party dissatisfied with IPTAB’s decision may file an appeal with the Intellectual Property High Court within 30 days of receiving the copy of IPTAB’s decision. If a party remains dissatisfied with the High Court’s ruling, it may then appeal to the Supreme Court. Although the Korean judicial system generally comprises three instances (trial, appellate and final appeal), trade mark disputes are effectively subject to a two-instance system after the IPT - AB’s decision – namely, the Intellectual Property The contents of a registered trade mark cannot be amended during revocation/invalidation pro - ceedings. 5.7 Combining Revocation/Cancellation and Infringement Trade Mark Infringement suits and revocation/invalidation proceedings are bifurcated: civil courts han - dle infringement actions, while IPTAB handles High Court and the Supreme Court. 5.6 Amendment in Revocation/ Cancellation Proceedings
revocation/invalidation actions. Both procedures may occur concurrently, but courts handling infringement lawsuits often wait for revocation/ invalidation outcomes. An expedited revoca - tion/invalidation proceeding may be requested during an ongoing infringement lawsuit, which, if accepted, can result in the judgment being issued within three months from the date of the decision to expedite. Appeals for both revocation/invalidation deci - sions and infringement suits are directed to the IP High Court, although each appeal case is handled separately. However, if appeal cas - es involving the same trade mark between the same parties occur at the IP High Court around the same time, they may be concurrently heard by the same panel of judges. 5.8 Measures to Address Fraud If an applicant submits false documents to reg - ister a trade mark with weak distinctiveness, the registration will be refused; if registered, it will be subject to an invalidation decision once the falsehood is revealed. Furthermore, anyone who obtains trade mark registration through fraudu - lent or improper conduct may be punished with imprisonment of no more than three years or a criminal fine not exceeding KRW30 million. There is no regulation for suspending the exami - nation of the application when the investigation is pending. In practice, if such misconduct is detected during the examination and an investi - gation ensues, the application will be suspend - ed.
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