“Seonggyeong Food Hanbando Map Trademark Registration Not Allowed”

The Supreme Court has ruled that a trademark consisting solely of a map of the Korean Peninsula lacks distinctiveness and cannot be registered as a trademark.

The Supreme Court's Special Division 3 (Presiding Justice Eom Sang-pil) on October 31 upheld the lower court's ruling against Seonggyeong Food in the trademark registration refusal cancellation lawsuit (2023Hu10453) filed against the Commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

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Seonggyeong Food, a seasoned laver manufacturer, has used the shape of the Korean Peninsula map in its laver packaging design. In 2020, Seonggyeong Food applied to register the outline of the Korean Peninsula map as a trademark, but the KIPO examiner rejected the registration, viewing it as a "trademark consisting only of a map." According to Article 33(1)(4) of the Trademark Act, trademarks consisting solely of maps are not registrable because they generally provide geographic information or make it difficult to indicate the source of specific goods. Seonggyeong Food appealed this decision to the Patent Tribunal, but after dismissal, filed a lawsuit with the Patent Court.

The Patent Court ruled against the plaintiff, stating, "A trademark in the shape of the Korean Peninsula map is easily recognized as a map of the Republic of Korea, making it inappropriate to grant exclusive rights to a specific company." Seonggyeong Food argued, "According to Article 33(2) of the Trademark Act, even trademarks originally lacking distinctiveness may be exceptionally registered if they have come to indicate the goods of a particular person through use over a certain period."

However, the Supreme Court also sided with KIPO. The court stated, "Although Seonggyeong Food simplified the outline of the Korean Peninsula map and changed its color, this is seen as a variation of the general map representation method," and "It does not prevent general consumers from recognizing it as a map."

Furthermore, "Seonggyeong Food has sold seasoned laver and other products for over 25 years since 1994, using various trademarks including the shape of the Korean Peninsula map, but there is no record of using the trademark alone," and "Most trademarks combined the Korean Peninsula map shape with characters such as 'Jidopyo' or 'Seonggyeong,' which cannot be considered the same as the applied-for trademark consisting solely of the Korean Peninsula map shape," the court judged.

It added, "The trademark applied for by Seonggyeong Food consists only of the Korean Peninsula map shape, making it difficult to be regarded as indicating the source of specific goods."

Reporter Lee Soon-gyu, Legal Times

※This article is based on content supplied by Law Times.