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Strengthened punishment on infringement of trademark right

Nov 2020
The revision of the trademark act has been passed by the Korean National Assembly recently and will be performed as of April 2021.
The revision is mainly about compensation on damages caused by intentional infringement of trademark right in maximum three times of the amount of damages. Prior to the revision, punitive damages only applied to patents and trade secrets. The revision further prescribe extended statutory damages from maximum KRW50,000,000 to KRW100,000,000.
The pharmaceutical industry seems to be a little relieved by the revision of the trademark act. The pharmaceutical industry used to struggle from numerous trademark infringements by food, cosmetics and daily supplies industries as they had tendency to name their products similar to famous pharmaceutical products for the purpose of associate the functions of their products with those of the famous pharmaceutical products.
Thanks to the revision, the pharmaceutical industry is expected to face less free ridings on the fame of their trademark from other industries.
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BKIP Limited

Unit 2202, 22/F, Causeway Bay Plaza I, 489 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
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