KOREA

1. Nature of the problems

In Korea, most cases of IPR infringements suffered by European right holders relate to
registered trade marks, designs, copyright and related rights. These infringements affect
mainly the sectors of fashion and luxury goods, as well as music industry and video games (in
particular online piracy).
Estimations indicate that the counterfeiting sector represents a revenue of 800 million for
the Korean economy, corresponding mainly to local production, even though there is a trend
of relocating manufacturing of counterfeit goods in China.
For trademarks and designs, one important problem is the large number of locally produced
counterfeit goods that can be found in retail shops and markets. But many of such goods are
also for export (in particular to Japan); Korean fakes are famous for their quality.
Copyright piracy (books, entertainment software and domestically copied optical discs) is
widespread in South Korea as well as Internet piracy. Broadband access is at 80%
households penetration (the highest in the world). Downloads from unauthorised sources
have increased sharply over recent years resulting in that legitimate music sales have fallen by
more than 55% since 2001.
2. What is country doing ?
Enforcement mechanisms are available and effective in a number of sectors, but still unable to
tackle the problems listed above. On certain sectors, such as entertainment software, the
situation has worsened over the last years and should be seriously addressed by Korean
authorities.
Authorities are generally only willing to take enforcement action where low quality
counterfeits are found; high quality counterfeits are not perceived as a priority to target.
Positive points are mainly:
the actions taken in order to address the vast problem of music piracy (international and
domestic recording industry) , in particular amendments to the Copyright law or proposal
of creation of a Joint Enforcement Agency;
the recent creation of an Investigation Centre on IPR Violations in the Supreme Public
Prosecutors Office and in major district public prosecutors offices;
the activities undertaken by the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) against IPR
infringements (provides information to public agencies, assist in conducting crackdown
activities, etc.).

3. What needs to be done?

Efficient implementation of the existing IP law in order to allow IP right holders to

properly enforce their rights;
Need to change the outdated legal framework regarding Internet piracy;
More active participation of the government authorities in the IPR enforcement policy and
their support for the actions against IPR infringements;
Improving human resources aspects of IP enforcement, by recruiting agents and training
them (judges, prosecutors, police, customs, etc.) on IP;

Improvements in the implementation of civil and criminal judicial procedures and

remedies;
Improvement of customs procedures to prevent exports of IP infringing goods.
4. What can the EU do?

Commission will pursue dialogue and cooperation with South Korea on IP, in particular in the
context of yearly experts meeting related to IP, insisting that Korea comply with its
international commitments on IPR and enforce them.
Commission will step up Customs co-operation between the two sides (operational training,
exchanges of information), in order for export checks to be better performed.
In the framework of the potential EU talks with Korea on a FTA, a detailed IPR chapter
addressing the problems mentioned above would be negotiated.