How to Register a Trademark in Korea: A Guide for Foreign Businesses

For a foreign company entering the Korean market, trademark registration in Korea is the one legal step that should come before almost everything else — before the distributor agreement, before the pop-up store, sometimes even before the market research trip. The reason is a single feature of Korean law that surprises many foreign businesses: Korea is a first-to-file country.

I am Jaewon Lee, an attorney and patent attorney in Seoul. A large part of my practice is advising foreign companies on protecting their brands in Korea, and this guide answers the questions I am asked most often about how to register a trademark in Korea.

Why should trademark registration come before market entry?

Under Article 35 of the Korean Trademark Act, when two or more applications are filed for the same or a similar mark covering the same or similar goods, only the earlier applicant can obtain the registration. What matters is the filing date, not who used the brand first in the market or who is better known internationally. You do not need to be using the mark in Korea to file, and conversely, years of use abroad give you no automatic priority here.

The practical consequence is a pattern I see regularly: a brand builds recognition overseas, Korean consumers discover it through social media or resellers, and by the time the company files its own application, someone else — a distributor, a former business partner, or a professional squatter — has already filed. At that point the conversation is no longer about registration but about recovery, which is slower and considerably more expensive.

One helpful recent development is worth knowing. The Act now allows a later applicant to register a mark with the consent of the earlier applicant or registrant, except where the marks and the goods are identical (Article 35(6)). This letter-of-consent system has opened a negotiated path that simply did not exist before, but it depends entirely on the other side's cooperation — prevention by early filing remains far cheaper than cure.

Can a foreign company file directly with the Korean IP office?

Trademarks in Korea are handled by the national IP office — known internationally for decades as KIPO, the Korean Intellectual Property Office, and recently elevated and reorganized as the Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP). You will still see both names in practice, and the filing system itself is unchanged in substance.

If your company has no address or place of business in Korea, Article 6 of the Trademark Act requires you to act through a local trademark administrator — an agent with an address in Korea, in practice a Korean attorney or patent attorney — for procedures before the office. This is not a formality you can skip; filings and office communications for foreign applicants run through that local representative.

There are two main routes into Korea. The first is a direct national application filed with the Korean office. The second is an international registration under the Madrid Protocol designating Korea, which the Trademark Act implements in a dedicated chapter (Articles 167 and following). Madrid filings are convenient when Korea is one of many countries in a portfolio strategy, but provisional refusals still need to be answered through a Korean representative, and a directly filed national application is often faster to adapt to Korean examination practice. If you have filed in your home country within the last six months, you can also claim convention priority so that your Korean application is treated as filed on your home filing date (Article 46).

What are the steps to register a trademark in Korea?

The process itself follows five stages. First, a clearance search: KIPRIS, the official free database, lets you check existing registrations and pending applications before you spend money on filing, and it has an English interface. Second, the application: you file the mark together with the designated goods and services, classified under the Nice Classification that Korea uses. Choosing the right scope of goods at this stage matters more than most clients expect, because the classes you file in define what your registration actually protects.

Third, examination. The examiner reviews whether the mark is distinctive — purely descriptive terms, common surnames, and simple signs are refused under Article 33 — and whether it conflicts with earlier marks or falls under other statutory refusal grounds. If a ground for refusal is found, you receive a notice and an opportunity to respond; many refusals are overcome with arguments or by adjusting the goods.

Fourth, publication and opposition. An application that passes examination is published, and anyone may file an opposition within thirty days of the publication date (Article 60). Fifth, registration: after the fee is paid and the mark is registered, the trademark right lasts ten years from the registration date and can be renewed in ten-year terms indefinitely (Article 83). In my practice, a smooth application with no refusals or oppositions typically takes something on the order of a year from filing to registration; contested cases take longer, so building the trademark timeline into your market-entry schedule is the safest course.

What if someone already registered your brand in Korea?

Registration is not necessarily the end of the story. An opposition is available during the thirty-day publication window, and after registration, invalidation and cancellation trials exist. The one foreign companies use most often is non-use cancellation: if a registered mark has not been used in Korea for three consecutive years without justifiable reason, anyone may petition to cancel it (Article 119(1)3). Combined with the letter-of-consent route described above, this means a blocked brand usually still has options — but each of them costs more time and money than filing first would have.

If Korea is on your company's roadmap, the checklist is short: run a KIPRIS search early, file before you announce your entry, claim priority if you recently filed at home, and choose your goods and classes with the next five years of business in mind rather than the next five months.

한국어 요약

저는 오늘 한국 진출을 준비하는 외국 기업이 알아 두어야 할 상표등록 절차를 정리해 드렸습니다.
한국 상표제도는 선출원주의를 취하므로, 외국 기업은 시장 진입 전에 먼저 상표를 출원해 두셔야 안전합니다.
국내에 주소나 영업소가 없는 외국 기업은 출원 절차에서 국내 상표관리인을 통하여 절차를 밟아야 합니다.
출원인은 출원 후 심사·출원공고(공고일부터 30일 이의신청)·등록의 단계를 거쳐 등록일부터 10년간 갱신 가능한 상표권을 취득합니다.
타인이 먼저 등록한 경우에도 기업은 상대방의 동의에 의한 등록이나 3년 불사용 취소심판 등의 수단을 검토하실 수 있습니다.

If you are planning to protect your brand in Korea, you can reach my office through lawyerseoul.com.

Jaewon Lee, Attorney at Law (Joye Law)