"Copulate it." Chinese version of "Fake" and "Buldak Ramen."Even if I do it, it's too much.

YTN Radio (FM 94.5) [YTN News FM Wise Radio Life]

□ Broadcast date and time: October 11, 2024 (Fri)
□ Host: Announcer Park Gui-bin
□ Castor: Chung In-sik, Director of the Industrial Property Protection Cooperation Bureau

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.

◆ Announcer Park Gui-bin (hereinafter referred to as Park Gui-bin): With the Korean Intellectual Property Office. It's unique and proud. As the Korean Wave grows in popularity overseas, counterfeit K-brand products are also increasing. It is said that there are a wide variety of types, including fake Korean trademarks and fake Korean trademarks for unauthorized use of trademarks. This time, the Korean Intellectual Property Office has actively responded to counterfeit K-brand products. Let's find out more about it. Let's hear from Chung In-sik, director of the Industrial Property Protection Cooperation Bureau. Director, welcome.

◇Jeong In-sik, Director of Industrial Property Protection Cooperation (hereinafter referred to as Jeong In-sik): Yes, hello.

◆Park Gui Bin: This is your second appearance. Usually, a lot of people come from the Korean Intellectual Property Office. Did you finish the round like this?

◇Information awareness: I think we come out often because I'm in charge of stealing technology and cracking down on counterfeit products that the general public is interested in.

◆Park Gui-bin: It's your second time with me today, and it's nice to meet you, so I told you that, and I think the director came out to tell you something important today. But that's true because the Korean Wave is so popular that there must be too many counterfeit products overseas. There's a lot of related news, too. How serious is this being distributed?

◇Informational awareness: Yes, as our technological competitiveness has strengthened and the popularity of Hallyu has increased recently, counterfeit products for our K brand are increasing significantly. So we did a survey with the OECD. In 2021, we conducted a survey based on 21 years of data, and the amount of counterfeit products distributed around the world due to infringement of Korean companies' intellectual property rights amounted to $9.7 billion and about 11.1 trillion won in Hanwha. In addition, this is 1.5% of Korea's total exports in 2021, and sales lost about 7 trillion won, about 13,000 jobs, and about 1.8 trillion won in tax revenue. So, we believe that the distribution of such counterfeit goods is causing serious damage to our national economy, which is very fatal.

◆Park Gwi-bin: You're right. It's a huge scale to hear the scale of damage directly, and isn't this all damaging to all of Korea's industries and the Korean economy?

◇ Authenticity: That's right. Now, we expect that only the amount shown when we conducted the survey is actually more serious than this.

◆Park Gui-bin: That's a big problem. There are so many things like this in the food sector that our companies can't stand it anymore, so the target is now China. I heard that they also filed a lawsuit in China. What's that about?

◇Informational awareness: As Korean food is now popular in China and Southeast Asia, there are a lot of cases of imitating, manufacturing, or selling Korean food. We are not imitating this specific product, but we are imitating Korean products for various items such as condiments, ramen, and salt. Recently, we have filed a lawsuit because a Chinese company copied various Korean food products from various Korean companies. However, it is easier for multiple companies to jointly respond like this than for individual companies to respond when multiple victims occur from the same counterfeit goods company, so we have the Korean Intellectual Property Office, four food companies, and the Korea Food Industry Association. So, we formed a consultative body together in April 2021, and what we need is to collect information and review local laws to file a lawsuit. So, in March last year, I received compensation of about 100,000 to 200,000 yuan from the Chinese court, and about 18 million to 37 million won in Korean won. Individually, individual companies have done administrative crackdowns like this, but this was the first time a number of companies jointly sued a food company, and it's meaningful that they won. So, although we are in a competitive relationship in Korea, I think it is meaningful in that we jointly responded and won the case because we are suffering damage together overseas.

◆Park Gui-bin: Companies couldn't stand it, so we collected evidence together, filed a lawsuit, and the compensation was about 18.68 million won to 37 million won, and the damage was 11 trillion won. So even though this is extremely compensatory, you think it's quite meaningful, right?

◇ In fact, it's actually difficult to calculate the damage, and we have to present all of them as evidence, but I think it's meaningful that we won the case.

◆Park Gui-bin: So you told me about counterfeit products and I heard that there are false labeling products. So you marked the product in Korean, not Korean?

◇Knowledge: Yes, it happened in Hanoi, Vietnam. We sold low-quality Chinese pears by turning them into Korean pears.

◆Park Gui-bin: I knew Korean pears were good.

◇ Recognition: Yes, that's right. At a store that specializes in selling imported fruits in Hanoi, Vietnam, they also label the products in Korean and trick the salesperson into selling them as Korean-made pears, and the origin of the pears is Made in China. So, it was caught by Vietnamese crackdown officials, and it came out on Vietnamese state-run TV, and there was a broadcast telling consumers to be careful. So there was an incident like that. Another type is that our soju is now very popular in Southeast Asia. So, there are cases in which soju is sold as if it were made in Korea by attaching 'cheers' or 'sun' or Korean labels, causing confusion among consumers.So our K brand is also popular in Korea thanks to the Korean Wave of K-pop, so we have to be careful and there is a lot of damage.

◆Park Gui-bin: I know that Korean products are good, so these things happen, but it's too serious to hear. You talked about the lawsuit seriously and earlier, but is there a policy like this that specifically supports these companies who are worried about this problem?

◇Informational awareness: Yes, our Korean Intellectual Property Office is now running a support project for our K brand. So, in China and Southeast Asia, where it occurs a lot, it occurs a lot on overseas online platforms these days. So, we monitor when there are paid products for our K-brand products on overseas online platforms such as Alibaba, Lazada, and Shopee. We also block sales and block sales posts when caught by monitoring, and when various disputes arise there, we file an objection or file an invalidation trial, or conduct administrative and criminal crackdowns with local crackdown officials, and we also support civil lawsuits. That's why we support and we cooperate with KOTRA to operate an overseas IP center that can respond to various brands and problems there. Currently, we are covering more than 40 countries, and we are consulting and providing legal advice on various patent and trademark issues that arise today.

◆Park Gui-bin: Where can companies that want to help with this issue regarding counterfeit goods get some information?

◇ Recognition: We have the Korea Intellectual Property Protection Agency, an agency under the Korean Intellectual Property Office. There's the Intellectual Property Protection Agency. In addition, there is a comprehensive overseas intellectual property protection portal called "IP-NAVI" operated by the Korea Protection Agency. So you can get a variety of information. So, we are providing information through the shelter.

◆Park Gwi-bin: Please say it to the end.

◇ Recognition: What I want to say is that any company that is or is planning to enter overseas must secure the right to secure the country's trademark or patent. When we give birth to a baby, we must produce products as if we were registered for birth and receive patent or trademark rights. Even if a dispute arises there, intellectual property rights are very difficult to resolve without legal rights there. So, I would like to tell you that it is most important for us to acquire local rights first, and when various disputes arise by industry recently, we have guidelines for each industry. I have published a conflict guideline. So this time, we published a strategy to respond to K-food counterfeit products. In the future, we are planning to publish a guide in areas where fashion and cosmetics are often counterfeited by our K brand.

◆Park Gwibin: I see. Until now, I was Chung In-sik, director of the Industrial Property Protection Cooperation Bureau. Thank you, director.