"Gangneung Coffee Bean Bread, Fake Copies of the Original Generating Over 5 Billion Won in Sales"

"I am the Real Original" Posts Online
"Employee Worked 3 Months Years Ago and Registered Trademark"

The owner of Gangneung Coffee Kongbbang, one of Gangneung's representative souvenirs, expressed frustration, claiming, "I am the true original of the true original." He said he is unfairly treated as a 'fake' by an employee who stole the recipe and technology to open their own store.

Gangneung Coffee Kongbbang received a patent in 2014 that detailed not only the recipe containing coffee but also the mold shape resembling a coffee bean.

[Photo by Original Gangneung Coffee Bean Bread SNS]

On the 11th, a post titled "[Anger] Hello. This is the 'Original' Gangneung Coffee Kongbbang" was uploaded to the online community for self-employed and small business owners, 'Because It's Hard, I'm a Boss.'

The author, A, the representative of the original Gangneung Coffee Kongbbang, stated, "Gangneung Coffee Kongbbang is a product that involved a considerable amount of time and effort, with over five years of research and development even before the patent application." He claimed, "A few years ago, an employee who worked for about three months left and started their own corporation using the exact same brand name."

He continued, "Many others are selling (Gangneung Coffee Kongbbang) under our name one after another. I don't understand why they want to steal what took years of research and tears to create so badly."

The Gangneung Coffee Kongbbang representative did not specify which companies copied Gangneung Coffee Kongbbang.

Representative A claimed, "The person who started a business by slightly changing the recipe promotes their store as the original and has grown into a large company with annual sales exceeding 5 billion KRW, but my truly original store's annual sales do not even reach 500 million KRW."

He added, "Now, passersby think we are all fakes. These days, the first thing that comes to mind is that I want to die. I desperately need your help. Please help us so that no one else can steal our bread anymore."

Conflicts over so-called 'fake famous restaurants' that copy popular eateries are frequent, but under current patent law, slight modifications to recipes can avoid patent infringement disputes in food-related patents.

The specific patented technical elements are called 'components,' and all patented components must be implemented to be recognized as patent infringement. Changing a small step or slightly adjusting the food mixture ratio can avoid patent infringement.

In the case of the problematic Coffee Kongbbang, as long as a certain proportion of coffee powder is included, simply changing that proportion slightly or altering the ingredients can avoid patent infringement.

However, under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, acts such as imitating the trade name or products of famous stores or infringing on trade secrets can be subject to legal sanctions.

The Unfair Competition Prevention Act regulates and prohibits various types of unfair competition acts. Using a name, trade name, mark, or other sign widely recognized domestically as indicating another's business, or something identical or similar to it, in a way that confuses others about the business facilities or activities, is considered unfair competition and subject to sanctions.

Recently, the Unfair Competition Prevention Act has been actively cited to protect and maintain the unique identity of famous restaurants, which could not be resolved by trademark law, copyright law, or patent law.

The Gangneung Coffee Kongbbang representative also said, "As of the end of April, we have filed under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act," but added, "I am worried because it seems the dispute will take years to resolve. I also feel overwhelmed about where and how to start changing people's perceptions."

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