1068 Cases of 'False Patent Claims' Detected in Home Shopping Sales

Example materials of false indication of intellectual property rights in home shopping online malls. Provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Numerous cases of falsely labeling patents in home shopping online malls have been uncovered.

On the 12th, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced that in a recent investigation into false labeling of intellectual property rights such as patents in 'home shopping online malls,' 1,068 cases (based on URLs) of false labeling were detected across 54 products.

The investigation was conducted to prevent damages caused by false labeling of intellectual property rights in home shopping online malls, reflecting the growing attention to home shopping amid the spread of non-face-to-face consumption culture due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, multiple home shopping online malls were found to have cases such as ▲displaying application numbers for which registration was rejected (615 cases) ▲displaying expired intellectual property rights numbers (380 cases) ▲incorrectly labeling rights names, such as marking trademarks and designs as patents (70 cases).

KIPO has taken corrective actions on these cases, including removal of postings and suspension of sales. It also warned that if corrective measures are not implemented in the future, criminal prosecution will proceed (with penalties including imprisonment of up to 3 years or fines up to 30 million KRW).

Separately, KIPO and the Korea Intellectual Property Protection Agency plan to intensively crack down on false labeling of intellectual property rights related to products directly linked to public health and safety, and will prioritize distributing leaflets and providing education on intellectual property rights labeling to the detected companies.

Jung Yeon-woo, Director of the Industrial Property Protection Cooperation Bureau at KIPO, stated, “As online consumption increases due to the COVID-19 situation, it is important for sellers and manufacturers to provide accurate intellectual property information to consumers. KIPO will focus on establishing a fair trade order through active investigations and corrective actions regarding intellectual property rights labeling.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.