Korean IP Updates for 2026: Nice 13, Design Easing, Faster Exam

2026 lands several Korean IP changes at once. Nice classification 13 takes effect on January 1, 2026 via WIPO. A Design Protection Act enforcement-rule amendment that came into force on November 28, 2025 lightens partial-design filings. KIPO has set a public goal of bringing the average examination wait down to 14 months by the end of December 2026, and the 2024 amendments on trade secrets and employee inventions are bedding in for full operational effect.

This guide pulls out the changes that meaningfully affect Korean IP filing and management practice in 2026 — what changed and what decision needs to be re-run. Per right type (trademark / design / patent) plus a single end-of-article checklist that you can lift straight into an internal review.

Nice Classification 13 — Effective January 1, 2026

WIPO's Nice 13 brings additions and class movements across all 45 classes. Korea applies the new edition on the same date, so every trademark filing made on or after January 1, 2026 must classify goods and services per Nice 13.

Design Protection Act Rule Amendment — Effective November 28, 2025

KIPO put through enforcement-rule and examination-guideline amendments effective November 28, 2025 to make design registration easier. 2026 is the first full year of operation under the new regime, so filing patterns will settle around the changes. Highlights:

• Sealed signature OR signed only — design-procedure forms can now be signed without a seal
• Colour permitted in partial-design drawings — for clearer scope identification, under defined conditions
• Partial-design naming requirement relaxed — lower drafting burden
• Optional fields removed — items like 'gist of the creative content' no longer required

Direct Transfer to Rightful Design Owners

The partial-examination registration regime gives quick rights for fashion and accessories, but bad actors had been registering already-known designs and using online platforms to halt competitors' sales. The amendment lets a rightful owner go through the courts and take direct transfer of the misappropriated registration in a single procedure, rather than running a separate cancellation and re-registration.

KIPO 2026 Examination Plan — 14-Month Target

Per KIPO's 2026 examination plan, the average examination wait is targeted at 14 months by end-December 2026. The plan adds 34 examiners in AI, IoT, and computers, expands expedited examination for advanced fields like physical AI, and shortens the response review window from four months to two for expedited cases. Applicants get a stronger case for using expedited tracks in those categories.

Trade-Secret 5x Damages and Disclosure Orders

The Unfair Competition Prevention Act amendment effective August 21, 2024 raised the punitive cap for wilful trade-secret infringement from 3x to 5x and added criminal penalties (up to 10 years' imprisonment, KRW 500m fine) for destruction or alteration of a trade secret. By 2026 the regime has been operational for over a year, so plaintiff-side use evidence and defendant-side secrecy management programmes directly drive litigation outcomes.

Looser Employer Succession for Employee Inventions

The Invention Promotion Act amendment effective August 7, 2024 eased the requirements for employer succession to employee-invention rights and introduced disclosure orders and protective orders in compensation litigation. Expect 2026 cases to use disclosure orders aggressively, with companies needing to keep ordered revenue and profit data, and corporate compensation policies needing explicit payment dates to avoid default-interest exposure.

Pre-2026 Checklist

Run through the items below in a single sitting to align internal IP operations with the new rules before January 1.

• Trademark — re-map goods to Nice 13 (especially eyewear/optical)
• Design — embed coloured-drawing policy and tighten monitoring of partial-examination misuse
• Patent — widen expedited usage, calendar the new 2-month response window
• Trade secret — audit classification, access, logs, and NDAs
• Employee invention — confirm policy includes payment dates and calculation method
• Annuity — sync bulk-payment plans and reduction eligibility into your management tool (e.g., iphere)

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Do December 31, 2025 filings still follow Nice 13?

Nice 13 applies to filings on or after January 1, 2026. Filings up to December 31, 2025 are examined under Nice 12, with renewals updated when they come due. That said, several Korea-led new items already appeared in the Korean Nice 12 specifications, and class moves like glasses 9 → 10 are worth pre-checking even for late-2025 filings to avoid renewal-time corrections.

Q2. We drew partial designs in monochrome — do we have to redo them under the new rule?

If your monochrome drawings already identify the claimed portion lawfully, leave them. The new rule permits colour, it does not prohibit monochrome. Where a monochrome line design previously triggered refusals because the claimed portion could not be identified, new filings can use colour to clear that ground.

Q3. With expedited examination getting faster, when should standard requests still be used?

Expedited has cost and eligibility constraints, so it is not for every matter. Use it for matters with hard launch dates or likely disputes; keep 'file and decide later' for uncertain cases, with the three-year examination-request window. Plan against a one-year-from-request horizon for standard matters in 2026, given the 14-month average target.

Q4. How do disclosure orders in employee-invention suits affect company practice?

Plaintiffs can ask the court to compel revenue and profit data. Companies need clean records and routine retention; trade secrets exposed during disclosure can be sealed with protective orders. The cleaner your routine compensation data is, the more likely you are to defend the reasonableness of the original payment without a top-up order.