Trade Commission imposes fines on companies infringing trademarks of curved cover protective films and Gucci shoes

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The government imposed fines on domestic and foreign companies that infringed on the 'curved cover protective film patent rights' of a domestic company, as well as on a domestic company that infringed on the trademark rights of the Italian luxury brand 'Gucci' shoes.

The Trade Commission of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 17th that it held a meeting and ruled the investigations on 'curved cover protective film patent rights infringement' and 'shoe trademark rights infringement' as unfair trade practices.

The 'curved cover protective film patent rights infringement' case was filed for investigation by the domestic company Whitestone, claiming that domestic company A imported and sold products infringing its patent rights from Hong Kong and other places, and foreign company B supplied these products from overseas to Korea.

After about eight months of investigation targeting Whitestone, and companies A and B, the Trade Commission ruled that the acts of respondents A and B importing and selling products infringing Whitestone's patent rights domestically, and supplying them from overseas to Korea, constitute unfair trade practices.

Companies A and B were ordered to stop importing and selling the investigated products, dispose of inventory, publicly announce the corrective orders, exclude the products from importation, and were fined.

Source: Trade Commission, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

The 'shoe trademark rights infringement' case was investigated following a report from the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Protection Association that domestic companies C, D, and E imported and sold shoes infringing the trademark rights of Guccio Gucci Societ? per Azioni (hereafter Gucci).

The Trade Commission conducted about ten months of investigation targeting the trademark owner Gucci and domestic companies C, D, and E. It confirmed that company C imported the investigated products infringing trademark rights from the Netherlands and sold them to company D, which then sold them to company E, and company E finally sold them to consumers. Such acts were ruled as unfair trade practices.

Domestic companies C, D, and E were ordered to stop importing and selling the investigated products, dispose of inventory, publicly announce the corrective orders, and were fined.

The Trade Commission stated, "If companies suffer damages from exporting or importing products that infringe intellectual property rights such as patents, trademarks, or copyrights domestically, they can receive relief within 6 to 10 months through the 'Unfair Trade Practices Investigation System.' We hope more companies will use this system in the future."

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