Relaxing of Enforcement Rules of the Design Protection Act from September 2020

Font designs in TTF format (from 1 September 2020)
Mixed drawing formats (from 1 September 2020)
Further categories of design eligible for partial examination (from 1 December 2020)


Continuing the trend for relaxed requirements for design applications, the Enforcement Rules of the Design Protection Act have been further eased in several aspects, as explained in more detail below.(1)

Mixed drawing formats (from 1 September 2020)

While both 2D line drawings and 3D-rendered drawings are acceptable formats for drawings in a design application, it has always been the case that the same drawing format must be used in the original application and any subsequent amendments. In other words, if the application was filed with 2D line drawings, any later amendments also had to be 2D line drawings.

This requirement has now been removed and applicants are free to file amendments in either format, regardless of the format of the original drawings.

Font designs in TTF format (from 1 September 2020)

While font files are commonly created and distributed using the TrueType font (TTF) format, in order to file for font design protection, it was previously necessary to prepare separate drawings in a standard drawing format (eg, TIFF or JPEG). However, design applications for fonts can now be based on TTF font files.

Further categories of design eligible for partial examination (from 1 December 2020)

Designs sensitive to trends or which have a short life cycle are subject to 'partial' examination, which comprises a check of application formalities, industrial applicability and limited novelty requirements (cannot be a 'widely known' design), but does not include substantive examination of novelty or creativity. This enables rights holders to have their designs registered more quickly.(2)

Partial examination previously applied only for designs in Locarno Classes 02, 05 and 19, but this has now been expanded to include Locarno Classes 01, 03, 09 and 11, with the full updated list shown below (class descriptions taken from the World Intellectual Property Organisation Locarno Classification tool).

• Class 01: foodstuffs;
• Class 02: articles of clothing and haberdashery;
• Class 03: travel goods, cases, parasols and personal belongings, not elsewhere specified;
• Class 05: textile piece goods, artificial and natural sheet material;
• Class 09: packages and containers for the transport or handling of goods;
• Class 11: articles of adornment; and
• Class 19: stationery and office equipment, artists' and teaching materials.

Designs in all other Locarno classes will remain subject to full, substantive examination.

For further information on this topic please contact Sung-Yeon Cho or Jonathan Masters at NAM & NAM by telephone (+82 2 753 5477) or email (sycho@nampat.co.kr or jonathan@nampat.co.kr). The NAM & NAM website can be accessed at www.nampat.co.kr.

Endnotes

(1) See previous updates here and here.

(2) See here for more information on examination timeframes.