One (1) Year Grace Period for Design Application in Korea


From September 22, 2017, the new Design Protection Act extended the six months grace period to one (1) year.

Under the previous Design law in Korea, a design would not be deemed to lose novelty over an identical or similar design as long as the application for the design was filed within six months from the date when the identical or similar design was first open to the public.

And the applicant must claim the novelty grace period when filing (i) the application (documentation of the previous disclosure can be submitted within 30 days from the application date), (ii) a response to an office action issued by the Korean Intellectual Property Office ("KIPO"), (iii) a response to an opposition filed by a third party, or (iv) a response to an invalidation action filed by a third party.

Under the new law, the grace period was extended from the six months to one year. And the time limit for claiming the grace period was changed from (ii) "when filing a response to an office action issued by KIPO" to (ii) "up until KIPO issues a final decision whether to grant a design registration."  Therefore, under the new law, an applicant can claim the grace period at any time while the application is still pending.