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.