Kumho Petrochemical Group Wins Supreme Court Trademark Lawsuit... Joint Ownership Recognized

Kumho Petrochemical Group has won the lawsuit against Kumho Construction regarding the registration of the group trademark transfer and the claim for trademark usage fees, allowing them to maintain joint use of the trademark rights.

On the 18th, the Civil Division 3 of the Supreme Court finalized a ruling against Kumho Industrial (now Kumho Construction), which had filed a lawsuit against Kumho Petrochemical Group for the registration of the group trademark transfer and the claim for trademark usage fees.

Kumho Construction and Kumho Petrochemical announced in 2007 that they would transition to a dual holding company system. At that time, trademarks including 'Kumho' and 'Asiana' were registered under joint ownership. However, conflicts arose in 2010 when Kumho Asiana Group entered a workout process and Chairman Park Chan-gu separated Kumho Petrochemical Group.

In 2013, Kumho Asiana Group claimed ownership of the trademark rights related to the 'Kumho' brand and symbol, citing the termination of the name trust agreement. They filed a lawsuit against Kumho Petrochemical, Kumho P&B Chemicals, and Kumho Development Company, demanding the return of trademark shares and payment of approximately 26.1 billion KRW in unpaid trademark usage fees.

Regarding the Supreme Court ruling, Kumho Petrochemical Group stated, "The court's wise judgment has clarified the ownership relationship between the two companies," and added, "Based on today's ruling, we plan to specifically identify the current status of the 'Kumho' trademark rights and internally review future authority exercise, trademark usage, and tax-related issues."

Meanwhile, it is known that the trademark usage fees claimed by Kumho Construction from Kumho Petrochemical so far amount to nearly 190 billion KRW.

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