KIPO Provides Legal Support for New Technology Design Protection... "Designs in Augmented and Virtual Reality Included"

Smart Bracelet UI. Provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office (Source: newsfilehippo website)

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) is establishing a legal support system for the protection of 'new technology designs' to promote the development of digital and non-face-to-face industries.

On the 3rd, KIPO announced that it is pushing for an amendment to the Design Protection Act to independently protect new technology video designs.

Under the current Design Protection Act, video designs must be expressed on physical goods to be protected, which prevents video designs projected on external walls or spaces from being registered as designs.

However, in the recent era dubbed the digital revolution, new types of design products incorporating new technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have been released, increasing the importance of design in the global market and expanding the industry scale.

In fact, the Korea Institute of Design Promotion reported in the '2019 Industrial Design Statistical Survey' that the economic value of design in 2018 reached 124.3 trillion won, and the economic value of new technology designs in 18 core industries including augmented reality, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things was estimated at 17.2 trillion won.

In line with this, the United States and the European Union are strengthening protection for new technology designs such as graphic designs and icons, and domestically, protecting new technology designs has become essential for companies to create new industries and target overseas markets.

KIPO’s establishment of a legal support system for new technology design protection aligns with this trend. KIPO plans to include video designs as a new subject of protection to allow independent protection and to recognize the online transmission of video designs and transfer or rental acts using recording media (such as USBs) as a form of design right usage.

The partial amendment to the Design Protection Act containing these provisions was submitted to the Industry, Trade, Small and Medium Enterprises Committee in September, following its proposal in August by Song Gap-seok, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea representing Gwangju Seo-gu Gap. KIPO expects the partial amendment to be approved by the National Assembly in the first half of next year.

Moon Sam-seop, Director of the Trademark and Design Examination Bureau at KIPO, said, “The non-face-to-face and remote service markets in the post-COVID-19 era are expected to show steady growth. KIPO will strive to enhance the industrial competitiveness of our companies in domestic and international markets by expanding protection for new technology designs through legal amendments.”

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