The new draft law introducing the Letter of Consent System in South Korea has been long-awaited and has been amended in the Korean Trademark Act (“KTA”). This new draft law was passed by the South Korean National Assembly on October 6, 2023. The amendments will be announced soon and are expected to take effect on 1 May 2024. Below are noteworthy changes related to the letter of consent system.

Under the current KTA law, a letter of consent is not accepted as a means to overcome the requirements of the relevant Trademark Office regarding a registered trademark. Therefore, parties agreeing on trademarks that coexist typically use a strategy of transferring the registered trademark and the pre-existing trademark owned by the same party until the trademark registration is completed. When the new law takes effect, a letter of consent can be used to overcome refusal decisions in cases like the above, if the parties do not intend to register a similar trademark for similar goods. The amendments also clearly specify that a letter of consent can be used for pending applications.

According to statistics from the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), about 40% of the total trademark activities of the office in 2022 were related to refusals based on conflicts with previously registered trademarks. Since the current letter of consent is not accepted even when the applicant and the trademark owner are partners, implementing the letter of consent system will reflect commercial reality and streamline the registration process when parties agree to coexist with their trademarks.

The draft law also introduces protective measures allowing the cancellation of a registered trademark based on a letter of consent if that trademark is used for unfair competition purposes and causes confusion and/or deceives consumers. If a registration is canceled for the mentioned reasons, the applicant will be prohibited from registering a similar or identical trademark to the canceled trademark for the