Constitutional Court: "No Need to Grant Reapplication Opportunity for Already Filed Designs"

Unanimous Ruling by Judges: "No Disadvantage in Not Granting Reapplication Opportunity for Public Designs"

The Constitutional Court has ruled that the current law, which does not allow a reapplication opportunity for designs that have already been filed and disclosed, does not violate the Constitution.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 24th, the Constitutional Court announced that it made a unanimous decision by all justices to uphold the constitutionality of Article 36, Paragraph 1 of the Design Protection Act in a constitutional complaint case.

Mr. A filed a design registration application for a golf club head design in April 2018, then withdrew the application for the prior design to modify part of the design and filed a new design registration application. However, the Korean Intellectual Property Office rejected the design registration, stating that it was similar to the prior design and did not fall under the exception for loss of novelty, prompting Mr. A to file a constitutional complaint.

Under the Design Protection Act, designs disclosed before the application can be rejected for registration on the grounds of loss of novelty, but an opportunity to register is granted for designs disclosed within 12 months (exception to loss of novelty). However, if the design has been published or announced domestically according to the law, the exception is not recognized.

The Constitutional Court stated, "The purpose of the exception to loss of novelty is to provide an opportunity to apply for designs that could not be filed due to business preparations after design development," and judged that "there is no disadvantage to the applicant in not granting a reapplication opportunity for designs that have already been filed and disclosed."

Furthermore, the Court ruled, "Considering that designs disclosed to the public belong to the public domain and, in principle, should be freely used by anyone, there is no reasonable ground to deny the exception to loss of novelty for designs that have already been publicly disclosed."

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