The following information and documents are required to apply for a trademark application in Korea:

(a) Name, address and nationality of an applicant;
(b) Trademark specimen(s) such as jpg files in case of a figurative trademark or device;
(c) Designated goods and/or services;
(d) Priority number and date when claiming priority; and
(e) General power of attorney or power of attorney.

A trademark application is electronically processed and the applicant may check on the application number on the date such application is submitted.

Any applicant who intends to claim priority under the Paris Convention shall claim the priority within six months of the date of the initial application that will be the basis of the priority claim. Any applicant who intends to claim priority under the Paris Convention shall fill in, upon applying his/her trademark, the intent, country in which the trademark was initially applied and application date on the trademark application form and submit the documents issued in the country in which the trademark was initially applied regarding the priority claim to the Commissioner of the Korea Intellectual Property Office (the “KIPO” hereinafter) within 3 months of the application date.

To apply a trademark to the KIPO, any applicant who intends to apply documents including a trademark application form shall fill in the applicant code that has been given to him/her. The applicant may be provided with the applicant code by registering his/her personal information in advance then, when he/she applies any documents including an application form, submit his/her personal information only by filling in the applicant code. Applicant’s name in English, address in English and nationality are required as personal information to be filled in to be provided with an application code.

Any applicant who intends to apply a trademark in Korea shall be provided with an applicant code and, in principle, an applicant shall be provided with an applicant code pertinent to him/her. It is required to pay attention when preparing the power of attorney so the address shown in the power of attorney must be identical to the address registered in the applicant code.

The applicant’s name and address are to be modified en bloc in all the documents linked to the applicant code upon modifying the name or address registered in the applicant code, which accounts for an advantageous effect of the applicant code system. Any data filled in a trademark registered on December 31,2007 or before, however, is to be modified either individually or in a lump via applicant information integration service.

Whereas an application may be entrusted to an agent by submitting a power of attorney upon each application phase, the agent may get into the current and coming procedures, by submitting a general power of attorney issued by the applicant, including application, request, registration and trial regarding the applicant without any additional power of attorney. An applicant may confer the power of attorney on a plurality of agents in Korea while he/she may withdraw the power of attorney from them at any time.

The KIPO sets out on an examination typically after one year to ten months from the application date, where, in a certain case, the applicant may request that his/her application should be examined prior to other applications, for which the applicant shall submit those documents required for an accelerated examination and pay additional official fees pertinent to it. Upon the request for accelerated examination being accepted, the examination may be set out typically within two months of the application date of the accelerated examination.

A case may be subject to an accelerated examination when

(a) it is explicit that the applicant currently uses or prepares to use the trademark he/she has just applied in connection with the designated goods/services; or
(b) it is recognized that one who is not the applicant him or herself uses by trade, after the application date, any trademark identical or similar to what the original applicant applied for the designated goods or services or other goods or services similar to them without justifiable reasons.
(e.g. In case that the applicant warns a third party for its expropriating, without justifiable reasons, a trademark identical or similar to what has been applied.)

Expenses incurred regarding a trademark application in Korea comprise official fees and agent fees. Designated goods up to 10 that belong to one classification are covered by the base official fee. Otherwise KRW 2,000 is to be added to an additional single piece of those designated goods at the time of application and registration.

Examination on trademarks is executed as per the order of application. With any reason of refusal, the examiner issues a Notification of Preliminary Refusal in which the reason of refusal is filled in on to provide the applicant with an opportunity to respond to it within a designated period.
Upon the applicant’s responding to the initially issued Notification of Preliminary Refusal by submitting an amendment or response, the examiner will set out on a due process, among three options, by:

(a) issuing a Decision on Publication of Examined Application should the reason of refusal have been resolved;
(b) issuing a Second Notification of Preliminary Refusal should additional reason(s) have been posed; or
(c) issuing a Decision of Refusal should the reason of refusal have not been resolved, according to which the applicant may file an appeal against the refusal to the Korean Intellectual Property Tribunal ("KIPT")

An applicant may, prior to a publication of examined application, amend the application within a scope that does not alter the purport of the original trademark application. If the application is published and an opposition is filed, the applicant may amend the application by the deadline for filing a response to the opposition. If the application is finally refused, the applicant may amend the application when requesting a re-examination or filing an appeal against the refusal within three months from the date of receiving the decision of refusal.

An applicant may amend the application within a scope that does not alter the purport of the original trademark application. If the application is published and an opposition is filed, the applicant may amend the application only within the scope related to the grounds of the opposition.

An applicant may divide a trademark application that entails two or more designated goods into two or more applications within the amendment period. Those applications thus divided shall be deemed to be applied on the date of the initial application.