Samyang Meals has registered trademark rights in 88 nations worldwide however is presently engaged in disputes in 27 nations. Vice Chairman Kim Jung-soo of Samyang Meals, which has turn out to be a number one world Ok-food consultant with its hearth rooster stir-fried noodles, disclosed this trademark infringement standing on the Nationwide Report on Financial Development Technique held on the Blue Home on Jan. 9, presided over by President Lee Jae Myung.
As Ok-brand recognition soars, “trademark brokers” who register Korean company manufacturers regionally upfront are quickly rising. CJ CheilJedang has additionally expanded into 70 nations led by “Bibigo,” however is presently pursuing 4 trademark rights lawsuits in China and Vietnam, amongst different nations.
In line with the Korea Mental Property Safety Company on Jan. 11, the variety of suspected unauthorized preemption circumstances of Korean emblems in seven abroad nations—China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and India—elevated greater than 2.5 instances in two years, rising from 4,045 circumstances in 2023 to over 10,000 circumstances for the primary time ever final yr. The variety of affected home corporations additionally greater than doubled from 3,622 to 7,447 throughout the identical interval.
As Ok-food, Ok-beauty, and Ok-content consumption surges worldwide, trademark brokers’ actions geared toward preemption and misappropriation are accelerating additional. Abroad trademark brokers are exploiting the “first-to-file” system, the place the primary registrant somewhat than the precise person holds the rights, by submitting Korean model trademark purposes first after which pressuring corporations with royalty calls for or lawsuits once they try market entry.
The issue is that whereas trademark disputes result in authorized battles, company income and funding capability are being straight eroded. The amassed prices of lawsuits to get better trademark rights, responding to royalty calls for, and blocking counterfeit merchandise vary from at the least tens of hundreds of thousands to a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of gained in damages.
Such injury just isn’t restricted to particular industries. In line with the Korea Mental Property Safety Company, unauthorized trademark preemption injury by business was highest in franchises (6,492 circumstances), electrical and electronics (6,446 circumstances), cosmetics (6,409 circumstances), clothes (5,751 circumstances), and meals (3,355 circumstances). Practically all industries the place Korean Wave recognition has unfold—Ok-beauty, Ok-fashion, Ok-food, and digital merchandise—have turn out to be targets of unauthorized preemption. Small and medium-sized enterprises, which lack the capability to reply, endure significantly extreme injury. An business official mentioned, “Not like giant companies, small and medium-sized enterprises that lack abroad authorized personnel and monetary assets to maintain prolonged lawsuits usually can not get better their trademark rights and quit getting into these nations altogether.”
Counterfeit and misappropriated merchandise, so-called “knock-offs,” via on-line distribution networks are additionally surging. On-line counterfeit product blocking circumstances reached file highs yearly, from 161,110 circumstances in 2023 to 191,971 circumstances in 2024 and 210,032 circumstances in 2025. In line with the Group for Financial Cooperation and Improvement (OECD), the size of counterfeit merchandise infringing Korean company mental property rights distributed globally is estimated at $9.7 billion (roughly 11 trillion gained) yearly.
Accordingly, the federal government has determined to boost its response stage. First, via investigations into the precise state of merchandise driving on the Korean Wave, it plans to strengthen native rights securing and crackdowns centered on 10 nations the place Ok-brand infringement ceaselessly happens, and develop assist for abroad mental property safety. Within the second half of this yr, it is going to set up an genuine product verification system to dam home and abroad counterfeit product distribution. The federal government additionally plans to use anti-counterfeiting applied sciences resembling synthetic intelligence (AI) watermarks and develop expertise that enables verification of Ok-brand authenticity utilizing cell phone cameras.
President Lee said on the Nationwide Report on Financial Development Technique, “We’ll fully reorganize abroad diplomatic missions as bridgeheads for company and cultural enlargement,” and “From personnel to bodily house, we are going to combine what non-public, public, and authorities companies have been doing individually into one unified house.” Minister of Agriculture, Meals and Rural Affairs Tune Mi-ryeong additionally defined, “Beginning this yr, we are going to designate 30 abroad base diplomatic missions to allow native inspection and crackdown on counterfeit merchandise,” and “They may also be capable of play a task in cooperating with main corporations and patrons, from customs points in early export levels.”
