The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced on the 2nd that it will implement a "Design Protection Support Program for National Heritage Products" to prevent disputes through securing intellectual property rights for products utilizing national heritage and to support stable commercialization by businesses.
This program targets small and medium-sized enterprises that plan and produce products utilizing national heritage such as relics, historic sites, traditional patterns, and traditional games. The program's distinguishing feature is providing customized support, including consulting on rights acquisition from the product development stage to enable IP protection, and establishing response strategies when disputes arise overseas.
Support includes establishing design right protection strategies for dispute prevention and developing response strategies against design right infringement (counterfeit and imitation) products. In particular, the program will provide intensive expert consulting on creativity requirements and design similarity assessments that must be considered when seeking protection through design rights and trademark rights for national heritage products. Any SME developing or commercializing national heritage products can apply through the Comprehensive IP Protection Portal.
Previously, the IP Office held a "National Museum of Korea Museum Shop Tenant Company Meeting" in December last year, where it heard from companies about difficulties caused by low-quality similar products being distributed on online shopping malls. This program was launched for the first time to address these difficulties.
"Recently, products utilizing national heritage are gaining cultural value and growing commercial success potential, but many cases are exposed to disputes due to lack of understanding about intellectual property rights," said Park Jin-hwan, Director General of the Intellectual Property Dispute Response Bureau at the Korean Intellectual Property Office. "Beyond this support program, we will actively back the growth of the national heritage product development sector by preparing necessary support measures such as customized IP education that will add synergy to creative activities."