Korea Technology Group, Court Halts Use of the Name 'Korea Technology'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] Korea Technology, a KOSDAQ-listed company (CEO Shin Yonggu, Lee Byunggil), announced on the 15th that it won a preliminary injunction lawsuit against Korea Technology Group Co., Ltd. (CEO Cho Hyunsik) to prohibit the mutual use of trade names.

The 60th Civil Division of the Seoul Central District Court ruled in its order that Korea Technology Group (formerly Hankook Tire Worldwide) must not use trade names such as ‘Korea Technology Group Co., Ltd.’, ‘Korea Technology Group’, or ‘HANKOOK TECHNOLOGY GROUP’ as business marks related to the manufacturing and sales of automobile parts and holding company business.

According to the ruling, Korea Technology Group is prohibited from using trade names such as Korea Technology Group on signboards, transaction documents, advertisements, business plans, business cards, booklets, websites, and posts related to the manufacturing and sales of automobile parts and holding company business.

For signboards, documents, advertisements, and business cards already displaying the Korea Technology Group trade name, the court ordered that possession be relinquished and that they be kept by a bailiff appointed by the creditor, the KOSDAQ-listed Korea Technology.

The court stated, “The creditor, KOSDAQ-listed Korea Technology, has been operating under this trade name for over eight years, and especially since entering the automotive electronics business sector, the trade name has been extensively used for more than two years and five months, thus establishing public recognition.”

Furthermore, the court ruled, “The trade names are considerably similar, causing potential confusion and misunderstanding, which satisfies the ‘likelihood of confusion’ requirement under Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act as a prescribed unfair competition act.”

This ruling marks the first case where a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) won a trade name prohibition lawsuit against a large corporation, making it a groundbreaking case among corporate name lawsuits.

An industry insider commented, “Usually, SMEs have almost no chance of winning trade name lawsuits against large corporations, but this case will be recorded as the first instance where an SME won. It is a rare case of David beating Goliath. The economic ripple effect on Hankook Tire due to this ruling is expected to reach hundreds of billions of won.”

In comparison, Korean Air pays trademark usage fees amounting to 0.25% of its annual sales, approximately several hundred billion won, to Hanjin Kal. Based on this, Korea Technology’s trade name rights are also expected to hold a value worth several hundred billion won.

A Korea Technology official stated, “This ruling will serve as a good precedent recognizing that even large corporations must respect the trademark rights of small but strong enterprises that have used their trademarks for many years. The use of the Korea Technology Group trade name has been prohibited, and it is understood that even employees’ business cards can no longer be used. We will proceed with appropriate legal measures in response.”

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