"‘World Cup Special?’ Massive Crackdown on False Intellectual Property Labels in Soccer Equipment"

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] A total of 368 cases of false labeling were detected on 11 products during a focused crackdown on false labeling of intellectual property rights (hereinafter IP rights) for soccer equipment conducted around November last year, when the Qatar World Cup was held.

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) on the 29th, the crackdown targeted about 10,000 sales posts of soccer balls, soccer shoes, protective gear, and other equipment sold on major open markets. The method involved checking the status of IP rights labeling and advertising, such as patents and designs, on the products listed in the posts.

The types of false labeling detected in the crackdown included ▲ cases where expired rights were indicated as valid rights (283 cases) ▲ cases where rejected application numbers were displayed (68 cases) ▲ cases where the rights belonged to the same company but were unrelated to the product (10 cases) ▲ cases where the name of the intellectual property right was incorrectly indicated (7 cases), among others.

It was confirmed that manufacturers of the detected products mainly released and sold soccer equipment falsely labeled with expired or rejected IP rights around the time of the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

The products most frequently falsely labeled and sold were knee protectors with 89 cases, soccer shoes with 85 cases, socks with 60 cases, and jokgu balls with 55 cases, in that order.

Main screen of the Online Intellectual Property False Marking Reporting Center. Provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office

After the crackdown, KIPO notified open market operators of the products subject to false IP rights labeling and guided them on correct labeling methods, completing corrective actions such as modification or deletion of the falsely labeled products.

Yang In-su, head of the Unfair Competition Investigation Team at KIPO, said, “We will strengthen planned investigations on items related to public safety among the items subject to false IP rights labeling crackdowns and expand education and promotional activities to prevent false labeling of IP rights.”

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