KIPO Publishes Three Guides for Overseas Trademark Search

The number of blocked counterfeit K-brand products sold on major overseas online platforms reached approximately 160,000 cases annually as of last year. Moreover, recently, the scope of damage has expanded not only to large corporations but also to small and medium-sized enterprise brands, requiring increased attention and caution regarding the prevention of counterfeit product damage.

On the 21st, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced that it has published three overseas trademark search guides using the official websites of the World Intellectual Property Organization (hereinafter WIPO), China, and Japan patent offices to prevent and respond to counterfeit product damage for domestic companies.

The guides were published with the aim of securing and protecting global K-brands for domestic companies. They are divided into ▲WIPO Trademark Search ▲Japan Trademark Search ▲China Trademark Search.

The WIPO Trademark Search Guide provides instructions on how to search for application and registered trademarks in various countries using the Global Brand Database (GBD) linked with patent offices worldwide. It also includes information on analyzing and utilizing GBD trademark data and details on major global trademark search sites.

The Japan and China Trademark Search Guides contain user manuals for the official trademark search sites of the respective patent offices, application and trial procedures, and fee information for each procedure. In particular, since Korea’s Hangul is treated as a design in Japan and China, the guides include methods for searching domestic trademarks in Hangul, which is expected by KIPO to help detect cases of unauthorized use of domestic companies’ trademarks.

The three guides are produced with about 30 pages of explanations and illustrations centered on actual search screen images to enhance user readability and portability.

KIPO has made the three guides available on its official website for anyone to download, and plans to provide free on-site training upon request from companies or organizations seeking related education.

Lee Chun-moo, Director of the Trademark and Design Examination Bureau at KIPO, said, “Trademark search is a low-cost, high-efficiency tool that increases the possibility of registration at the application stage and protects one’s trademark through imitation trademark searches after registration.” He added, “We hope that the guides will help small and medium-sized enterprises, which lack intellectual property experts, to foster global K-brands.”

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