[Patent Talk] IP Disputes: Individuals Are No Exception

Recently, a client came to me for advice after being criminally accused of design right infringement and receiving a summons to appear at a police station. The client was a small business owner selling small furniture through an online shopping mall. The other side's claims were a mix of unjustified and justified points, but after I explained the cost and time of fighting the case and the uncertainty of the outcome, the matter was settled through mediation. The client paid a considerable settlement and had to destroy the entire inventory, suffering a heavy loss.

Another client had been selling furniture without obtaining a design right, and when the product became a big hit, the client found a competitor selling extremely similar copies and asked how to respond. I advised sending a warning letter based on acts of infringement under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, but it was a great pity that the client could not assert strong rights based on a design right.

In yet another case, a client who had been selling counterfeit products through a shopping mall hosted on a large company's platform asked me how to respond after a trademark infringement report was filed and the entire shop was blocked. The client insisted that the goods were not counterfeits, but it eventually turned out that counterfeits had indeed been sold, and the suspension of the shop dealt a heavy blow to the client's sales.

These cases show that individual business owners, such as small merchants, are no exception when it comes to IP disputes. If you mistakenly believe that disputes such as patent infringement suits happen only to large companies like Samsung or Apple and run your business without analyzing infringement of patents, design rights, trademarks and other IP rights before selling your products, you may find yourself in serious trouble.

This is because a mere allegation of infringement can lead a shopping mall to suspend sales; if a criminal complaint for infringement is filed, you must appear at the police station for questioning; and even if you try to settle the criminal complaint or civil suit, you will have to pay a considerable settlement. The larger your sales, the larger the damages or settlement may be.

Conversely, if you sell a product without obtaining IP rights...