How to Register a Trademark in South Korea: Complete 2026 Guide

South Korea is a market of more than 51 million consumers, and K-beauty, K-pop, and Korean tech have made it a first stop rather than an afterthought for global brands. The trademark system there runs on a strict first-to-file principle, so the first application on file usually wins, whoever used the name first.

This guide walks through what you can protect, how the Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP, formerly KIPO) handles an application, what it costs, why a Hangul version of your name matters, and what to do once you are registered. If you would like the search done first, start with a free trademark check.

What can you trademark in South Korea?

The Korean Trademark Act is modern and covers a wide range of brand identifiers. The core requirement is distinctiveness. Your trademark has to be capable of telling your goods or services apart from everyone else's.

Standard Trademarks

• Word marks: the name of your brand, product, or service in letters.
• Device marks (logos): stylized designs, symbols, or images with no text.
• Composite marks: a combination of words and design elements.
• Letters and numerals: specific letter or number combinations that have acquired distinctiveness.

Non-Traditional Trademarks

MOIP also registers less conventional trademarks, as long as they are distinctive:

• 3D marks: the shape of a product or its packaging, such as the contour of a bottle.
• Color marks: a single color or a combination applied to a product or service. Proving a color alone identifies your brand takes substantial evidence of use.
• Sound marks: short, distinctive melodies, such as an advertising jingle or a device startup sound.
• Scent marks: specific fragrances. These are among the hardest to register and need strong proof that consumers link the scent to you.
• Hologram and motion marks: trademarks that change in appearance or show movement.

Some things cannot be registered. Under Article 33 of the Korean Trademark Act, trademarks that lack distinctiveness are refused, including generic terms ("Smartphone" for smartphones) and terms that simply describe quality, origin, or function ("SWEET" for sugar). Article 34 covers other grounds, such as trademarks similar to national flags or emblems of public institutions, and those contrary to public order and morality.

Step by Step: Registering a Trademark With MOIP

First-to-file is the concept to hold on to. The first party to file, not the first to use, generally gets the rights. Waiting until your brand is established in Korea before filing leaves the door open for someone else to register your name.

Step 1: Run a Thorough Search

A thorough search of the MOIP database before you file tells you whether your trademark is available or is heading for a conflict with an earlier registration or pending application.

The official search portal is KIPRIS (Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service). It has an English interface, but an English-only search is not enough. You also need to cover:

• Hangul equivalents: how your brand name would be written and pronounced in Korean. There are often several phonetic variations.
• Similar meanings: existing Korean trademarks that create a similar commercial impression, even if they look and sound different.
• Component parts: individual elements of your trademark, since a conflict with a dominant component can sink the whole application.

Because of the linguistic and cultural nuances, an automated English search alone will miss things. A professional search covers Roman characters, Hangul variations, and design elements, and gives you a clear picture before you spend money on filing.

Step 2: Prepare and File the Application

A key rule for owners based outside South Korea: a qualified local attorney must file and manage your application. A foreign individual or company cannot file directly with MOIP.

The attorney handles the submission and all communication with MOIP. To file, they will need:

• Owner details: full name and address of the trademark owner.
• The trademark: a clear representation. For word marks, the name itself. For logos or composite marks, a high-resolution image file.
• List of goods and services: South Korea uses the Nice Classification, the international system that groups goods and services into 45 classes. If you are not sure which classes fit your business, Class Assist walks through it.
• Power of attorney: a document signed by the owner authorizing the local attorney to act for you.

A practical tip: MOIP maintains its own list of pre-approved descriptions of goods and services. Using those terms speeds examination and reduces the chance of an objection about the scope of your protection.

Step 3: MOIP Examination

After filing, an examiner reviews the application for formalities and for substantive issues. This is normally the longest stage of the process. MOIP publishes current examination pendency figures, so check those before you fix a launch date around your registration.

The examiner assesses:

• Formalities: is the owner information correct, and are the goods and services classified properly?
• Absolute grounds for refusal: is the trademark distinctive, or is it generic, descriptive, or deceptive (Article 33)?
• Relative grounds for refusal: is it identical or confusingly similar to a prior trademark on the register?

If the examiner finds a problem, they issue a "Notice of Preliminary Rejection", the Korean equivalent of an office action. You get a set period, typically two months and extendable, to respond with legal arguments and, where needed, evidence. Overcoming a preliminary rejection almost always needs a local trademark attorney.

Step 4: Publication for Opposition

Once the application passes examination, MOIP publishes it in the official Trademark Gazette. That starts a 30-day opposition period.

During that window, any third party who believes they would be damaged by your registration can oppose it. The opponent files a brief setting out the grounds, you file a counter-argument, and a panel of MOIP examiners decides.

Step 5: Decision to Grant and Registration

If nobody opposes, or you see off an opposition, MOIP issues a "Decision to Grant Registration". That is the approval, but not the last step. You then pay the government registration fee by the stated deadline. Once payment clears, your trademark goes on the register, a registration number is assigned, and a certificate is issued. Protection runs for 10 years from the registration date.

What It Costs in South Korea

Budgeting means looking at two things: the MOIP government fees, and the professional fee, which covers the qualified local attorney who files.

MOIP charges per class. The application fee is KRW 52,000 per class for an online filing, paid at filing. Renewal, at the end of each 10-year term, is KRW 300,000 per class. A registration fee is also due per class once your trademark is approved, before the certificate issues. For the Total, including our professional fee, see our South Korea trademark service or the pricing page, where it is set out as a flat fee before you commit.

Other costs to plan for:

• Professional fees for preparing and filing the application, managing communication with MOIP, and reporting back.
• Translation where documents have to go into Korean.
• Office action responses, if the application draws a preliminary rejection.
• Search fees for a professional pre-filing clearance search.

Skipping the search phase to save money tends to cost more later, because a refusal means paying twice.

Why You Also Want a Hangul Trademark

One of the most common mistakes foreign brands make in Korea is registering only the Roman-character version of the name. That is essential, but on its own it is incomplete protection in a market where Hangul dominates.

Korean consumers will transliterate your brand into Hangul for conversation, social media, and search. Starbucks, for example, is universally 스타벅스 (Seu-ta-beok-seu). If you do not claim a Hangul version, three things tend to happen:

1. Multiple unofficial versions. Consumers and resellers invent inconsistent spellings, which dilutes your identity and makes you harder to find.
2. Trademark squatting. A local operator can register the obvious phonetic transliteration, then use it to block your goods at customs, sue for infringement, or sell the registration back to you.
3. Harder enforcement. Counterfeiters on Coupang or Naver often use only the Hangul name. Owning the matching Hangul registration makes those takedowns straightforward.

Best practice is two applications: your original Roman-character trademark, and a carefully chosen Hangul version. Picking the right transliteration takes linguistic input, so that it is phonetically accurate, easy to say, and free of unintended meaning in Korean. It is a small filing that buys a large amount of security.

Common Grounds for Refusal

MOIP examiners are thorough, and plenty of applications draw an initial rejection. Knowing the usual causes helps you file a stronger application.

Similarity to Prior Trademarks

The most frequent reason for refusal, and the reason a professional search pays for itself. MOIP looks at visual similarity (how the trademarks look), aural similarity (how they sound), and conceptual similarity (what they mean). That is why the phonetic Hangul search matters: a trademark that looks different but sounds the same to a Korean speaker can be refused.

Lack of Distinctiveness

Under Article 33, trademarks that cannot function as a source identifier are rejected:

• Generic trademarks: the common name for the product ("Bread" for a bakery).
• Descriptive trademarks: those that merely describe a characteristic, such as purpose, quality, size, or shape ("COLD AND REFRESHING" for beverages).
• Geographical locations: a well-known place name, unless it has acquired secondary meaning.

A descriptiveness rejection can be overcome by proving acquired distinctiveness, that is, showing that through extensive use and marketing in Korea consumers now read the term as your brand. The evidence bar is high and it is rarely realistic for a new market entrant.

Conflict With Public Order or Morality

Under Article 34, trademarks that are scandalous or offensive, or that are likely to mislead consumers about the nature or quality of the goods, can be refused. The same applies to those that falsely suggest a link to a government or public body.

WIPO's Madrid System (the Madrid Protocol) or direct national filing?

There are two routes into Korea.

Direct National Filing

The route described in this guide: a qualified local attorney files your application directly with MOIP.

• Pros: expert local advice from day one, an application tailored to MOIP practice (including the pre-approved goods descriptions), and more direct control. Often faster if Korea is one of only a few countries on your list.
• Cons: if you are filing in many countries, running a separate filing with a local attorney in each is administratively heavier.

WIPO's Madrid System

WIPO's Madrid System lets you file one international application through your home office and cover multiple member countries, Korea included.

• Pros: one application, one set of fees, and one renewal date across a portfolio. Usually simpler to manage once you are targeting five or more member countries.
• Cons: for the first five years the international registration depends on your home trademark, so if the home trademark falls, the international registration falls with it. An international application that covers Korea is still fully examined by MOIP under Korean law, and if an office action issues, a qualified local attorney still has to answer it, sometimes on a tighter deadline.

Which is right depends on how many countries you are covering, your budget, and your appetite for admin. For brands whose main prize is Korea itself, a direct national filing usually gives more control.

Protecting Your Brand on Coupang, Naver, and Other K-Commerce Platforms

South Korea has one of the most developed e-commerce markets anywhere, led by Coupang and Naver Shopping. Those platforms are where Korean consumers discover products, and they are also where counterfeits and unauthorized resellers show up.

A Korean registration is what makes enforcement work there. Every major Korean platform runs an intellectual property reporting system, and to take down an infringing listing you generally:

1. Open the platform's IP reporting portal.
2. Give your Korean trademark registration number as proof of ownership.
3. Identify the specific listings that infringe.
4. Submit the takedown request.

Without a registration number, complaints tend to go nowhere. With both the Roman-character and Hangul trademarks registered, you have clear authority to pull listings that take your sales.

After Registration: Keeping the Right Alive

Registration is a milestone, not the finish line.

Use Your Trademark

A Korean registration becomes vulnerable to cancellation if the trademark is not used in South Korea for three consecutive years. Under Article 119 of the Korean Trademark Act, an interested third party can file a non-use cancellation action, and your defense is proof of genuine use in Korean commerce: product packaging, local advertising, a Korean-language website, or goods sold through local distributors or e-commerce.

Monitor and Enforce

Your registration gives you the right to stop others, but policing it is on you. A trademark watch service reviews the Trademark Gazette for newly published applications that look confusingly similar to yours, which gives you the chance to oppose before a conflicting trademark ever registers.

Renew on Time

A Korean trademark runs for 10 years and can be renewed indefinitely in 10-year terms at KRW 300,000 per class. The renewal window opens one year before expiry, and there is a six-month grace period afterwards with a late fee. Docketing those dates across a portfolio is the part clients most often hand to us.