Fees (RMB)

Trademark application and registration: 7,500 yuan

Each additional category: 5,000 yuan

Inquiry fee: English : 500 yuan Graphic: 1,200 yuan

South Korea's trademark law adopts the first-to-file and registration principles. "Signs that are distinguished from other goods" are protected and must be registered as trademarks. The trademark law does not provide any protection to the prior user, but if the trademark is a well-known trademark or famous trademark, it will be protected. Trademark registration has nothing to do with whether the trademark is used in South Korea.

Starting from July 2005, the Korean Intellectual Property Office will provide trademark protection to products that have a specific geographical origin and have a certain quality or reputation associated with that place. The current Korean Trademark Law only adopts restrictive protection measures for geographical indications and does not allow applications for registration of geographical names and origin indications. The revised Trademark Law allows applications to be filed with the Korean Intellectual Property Office to register geographical indications to protect products originating from a specific place of origin and named after that place of origin. Therefore, after the new Trademark Law comes into effect in July 2005, all products with specific geographical origins, whether they are well-known foreign geographical indications or famous local specialties in Korea, will be protected by trademarks. The concept of "geographical indication" includes the name of place of origin.

Trademark review procedures:

1. Formal review

The application will be accepted within half a month after submission. A formal review will be conducted within one month after the application is accepted. Applications that do not meet the requirements will be given a certain period of time for corrections. If the supplements and corrections meet the requirements, they will enter the substantive examination process. If the corrections do not meet the requirements, the Director of the Patent Office can declare the trademark registration application. invalid.

2. Substantive review

Generally, it takes 12 to 14 months from application to the end of the substantive review.

When the examiner determines that the registration application meets the approval standards after review, the trademark registration application will be announced. If it does not meet the approval standards, the applicant will be notified and asked to state his opinions within a specified period.

When opinions or corrections are made that meet the requirements for approved registration, the trademark registration application will be announced. If the application still does not meet the requirements for approved registration, a rejection decision will be made.

Application time:

The time to obtain the official trademark acceptance document is about half a month, and the application time is about 12-14 months.

Protection period:

The exclusive right to use a trademark is valid for ten years starting from the date of approval of registration. Application for renewal of registration must be made within six months before expiration; failure to apply during this period Those who apply will be given a six-month extension period. If an application has not been made before the extension period expires, the registered trademark will be cancelled. Each renewal of registration is valid for ten years.

The process of registering a Korean trademark:

1) Trademark design - design the trademark by yourself before applying for Korean trademark registration.

2) Trademark query - query service (free); it can also be a customer self-service query or a specialized personnel query. Provide a simple trademark search report

3) Trademark application - Submit the trademark registration application documents to the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

4) Trademark acceptance - the Trademark Registration Office will issue a receipt to the applicant with an acceptance number. (You can receive an acceptance notice from the Korean Intellectual Property Office on the same day of application)

5) Trademark review - Trademark review is divided into two processes: formal review and substantive review.

6) Trademark announcement - Once the trademark is approved, an announcement will be made for a period of 3 months. Anyone can raise objections to the trademark.

7) Trademark registration - there is no objection to the trademark announcement or the trademark objection is ruled to be untenable, or the trademark registration is successful. Under normal circumstances, it takes about 12-15 months to obtain a trademark registration certificate. After successful registration, it will be valid for 10 years and can be renewed on time six months before expiration.