Korea Minting, Security Printing & ID Card Operating Corp. (KOMSCO) announced on April 2 that it will provide its AI digital watermark technology and digital platform to support the successful launch of the "K-Brand Government Certification System," which was reported at the 13th Cabinet meeting on March 31.
The K-Brand Government Certification System is a program under which the government introduces a national certification mark (trademark) to directly combat the overseas distribution of counterfeit goods. The initiative responds to rising counterfeiting damage to Korean export products driven by the global spread of the Korean Wave.
According to the government announcement, when counterfeiting damage to Korean exports occurs overseas, the government plans to respond directly by leveraging diplomatic channels to strengthen crackdowns on counterfeits and tighten customs enforcement.
Once the government files and registers a joint national trademark (K-Brand), state-level responses to counterfeit goods will become possible. Previously, individual companies had to handle counterfeiting cases on their own. Even when they won lawsuits, damages awarded were only around 40 to 50 million won, rendering the process ineffective. Many companies gave up litigation due to the burden of cost and time.
The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the supervising ministry, officially designated KOMSCO as a "specialized agency for industrial property rights protection" on March 23. The designation aims to deploy advanced technology that makes counterfeiting more difficult and enables real-time verification of unauthorized copying. KOMSCO plans to build a dedicated platform that combines AI-powered digital watermarks with security technologies accumulated through its currency manufacturing expertise.
The designation is expected to strengthen anti-counterfeiting measures for a wide range of Korean export products — including food, cosmetics, fashion apparel and merchandise — that are enjoying robust export growth on the back of the Korean Wave.
KOMSCO's collaboration with private-sector anti-counterfeiting firms is also noteworthy. The corporation plans to partner with capable small and medium-sized enterprises specializing in digital watermarks to implement high-level security technology that uses artificial intelligence to fuse different technologies.
"KOMSCO has steadily converted traditional anti-counterfeiting technologies to digital — currency to Digital Onnuri and local love gift certificates, and ID cards to mobile IDs," KOMSCO President Sung Chang-hun said. "This time, the everyday anti-counterfeiting field is also making the transition from analog to digital. We will leverage the know-how accumulated through various digital projects to grow this into a platform that truly helps export companies."
The digital platform supported by KOMSCO will operate as a "one-stop brand protection ecosystem" that goes beyond simple institutional support. Companies will be able to apply advanced anti-counterfeiting technology through the platform, monitor the status of counterfeit product occurrences, and receive government response support — all in one place.
