SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Dongju Kwon, Chulgun Lim, Sejung Lee and Yoon Sun Kim, Yoon & Yang LLC
see 5.5 Legal Remedies Against the Decision of the Trade Mark Office . For copyright matters, KIPO has no such pro - cedure. 7.9 Counterfeiting and Bootlegging Counterfeiting a trade mark/copyright, the pro - duction or sale of counterfeit goods and the unauthorised reproduction of works are not separately defined in the relevant statute, nor are there specific procedures or legal remedies defined for such purposes. However, protection is available under the TMA, UCPA, CA or Design Protection Act if the elements for protection and infringement are met. Depending on the case, available remedies include an injunction, compensatory damages, restoration of a trade mark owner’s reputation and criminal sanctions. IP-related crimes can be reported to the police or to KIPO’s special judicial police, among others. 8. Litigating Trade Mark and Copyright Claims 8.1 Special Procedural Provisions for Trade Mark or Copyright Proceedings There are no special procedural provisions for trade mark or copyright proceedings, and there are no jury trials in Korea. However, Korea has a specialised IP court and an IP High Court, the latter of which handles appeals regarding registered IP rights except copyrights and appeals of IPTAB decisions. It employs technical examiners, and other courts employ technical research officers who provide expert insights to assist judges in complex tech -
nical matters. However, their findings are advi - sory and do not bind the court. 8.2 Effect of Registration See 3.7 Copyright Registration , 4.1 Trade Mark Registration and 7.2 Legal Claims for Infringe- ment Lawsuits and Their Standards . 8.3 Costs of Litigating Infringement Actions Infringement litigation costs can vary signifi - cantly based on various factors, including the case complexity, the volume and scale of the infringements, etc. 9. Defences and Exceptions to Infringement 9.1 Defences to Trade Mark Infringement Defendants typically counter plaintiffs’ trade mark infringement claims with the following defence arguments: • statute of limitations for a damages claim; • the contested mark or goods are not identi - cal/similar; • the defendant’s use does not constitute regis - tered trade mark use; • the plaintiff’s trade mark registration is clearly invalid or the plaintiff has not used the reg - istered trade mark for an extended period unlike the defendant, thereby constituting an abuse of rights; • the defendant’s trade mark use constitutes use of its own name consistent with com - mercial practices or use of a customary mark, and thus is outside the scope of the trade mark right; or • the defendant is entitled to continue using the mark as they have done so without any unlawful intent before the plaintiff’s trade
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