Allowing Firms to Hide Designs for Certain Period of Time
The South Korean government announced on March 10 that a revised enforcement decree of the Design Protection Act would become effective this month so that a company with a design application can hide its product design for a certain period of time if it wishes to do so. In this case, the applicant can hide drawings and designs and related descriptions and important points in its design publication.
Previously, South Korean companies such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics asked the government to revise the law so that Chinese companies and so on cannot copy their products based on product names, corporate information, etc. At present, similar systems for design concealment and protection are in effect in the European Union and Japan and their systems differ from that of South Korea in that designations are undisclosed.
Chinese companies have copied South Korean products for a very long time. Such cases can be easily found at global exhibitions such as CES and IFA. For example, TCL exhibited products identical to Samsung Electronics’ The Sero and Frame TVs at CES 2020. TCL copied the TV products after Samsung Electronics unveiled them. In addition, TCL exhibited refrigerators and washing machines similar to LG Electronics’ InstaView refrigerator and TwinWash washing machine.