Patent Tribunal Invalidates Trademark Registration of 'Jeotgal Sommelier'

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] From now on, 'Jeotgal Sommelier' will no longer be recognized as a trademark.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board Division 1 recently ruled the trademark 'Jeotgal Sommelier,' registered in 2012, invalid by accepting the request of Kang Ji-young, CEO of Lucid Kitchen, declaring the rights null and void.

Until now, Yang Hyung-ja, director of the World Food Culture Research Institute, who registered the 'Jeotgal Sommelier' trademark, claimed trademark rights against CEO Kang, who introduces herself as the 'No. 1 Jeotgal Sommelier.' CEO Kang responded with a patent lawsuit and won this time.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board stated, “Although 'Sommelier' is a word meaning a wine expert, its meaning is used diversely when combined with specific words and is mentioned as a form of private certification,” thus siding with the petitioner. This means it is used in various contexts such as vegetable sommelier, rice sommelier, sake sommelier, Makgeolli sommelier, as well as non-food related terms like tobacco sommelier, IT sommelier, and book sommelier.

The board also judged that since 'Jeotgal Sommelier' is registered as a private certification name and is promoted and advertised as meaning a jeotgal expert on online shopping platforms, it is difficult to recognize trademark rights any longer.

In the patent attorney industry, the reaction was, “Even after a trademark is registered, its rights can be extinguished for various reasons,” and “This ruling means that even a registered trademark can be invalidated later if it loses distinctiveness.”

CEO Kang Ji-young said, “The trademark owner of 'Jeotgal Sommelier' repeatedly warned me by phone not to use the trademark and even filed a civil lawsuit,” adding, “The extinction of trademark rights for 'Jeotgal Sommelier,' which has become a generic term, is natural.”

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