Increase in Overseas Trademark Infringement for 'K-Brand' Cosmetics Industry and Small Businesses

Over the past five years, unauthorized trademark squatting of K-brands overseas has been concentrated in five sectors, including cosmetics, and among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

On the 23rd, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced the results of monitoring and analysis of unauthorized overseas trademark squatting of domestic companies in China and Southeast Asia from 2019 to 2022.

The analysis confirmed that unauthorized overseas trademark squatting damage by industry for domestic companies frequently occurred in five major sectors: cosmetics (18.7%), electronic devices (15.3%), apparel (15.1%), franchises (13.2%), and food (7.6%).

KIPO attributes the increase in the frequency of unauthorized trademark squatting of K-brands overseas to the rising brand awareness of Korean companies driven by the Korean Wave, including K-content.

The monitoring analysis also highlighted the damage to SMEs from unauthorized brand squatting. By company size, the damage from unauthorized overseas trademark squatting of K-brands was 81.8% for SMEs, 9.4% for mid-sized companies, and 8.2% for large corporations. Smaller companies were thus more vulnerable to unauthorized brand squatting.

However, in the damage status by industry, the cosmetics sector showed a high proportion of SMEs at 18.2% and mid-sized companies at 27.3%, whereas in the electronic devices sector, large corporations accounted for 24.7% of the unauthorized overseas trademark squatting damage.

Unauthorized squatting damage to K-brands mainly occurred through the unauthorized registration of identical trademarks within the same industry (69.5%), while cases of using identical or similar trademarks in different industries accounted for 27.4%.

Among the K-brand trademarks squatted overseas without authorization, English trademarks accounted for more than 70% of all unauthorized squatting cases. Following this, trademarks including Hangul, such as mixed English-Hangul trademarks and Hangul-only trademarks, accounted for more than 25% of the damage.

Han Deok-won, Director of the Industrial Property Dispute Response Division at KIPO, emphasized, “As unauthorized trademark squatting of domestic companies continues unabated in China and Southeast Asia, it is crucial for each company to secure trademark rights in export destination countries in advance.”

He added, “KIPO will strengthen support for companies expanding overseas by providing advance information on industries with frequent unauthorized squatting to prevent damage.”

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