Blog
Insights on patents, trademarks, and design protection
Hague International Design (WIPO) Design Maintenance: Management Manual
A practice manual for renewing Hague international design registrations at WIPO: five-year cycles from the international registration date, a single point of payment, a grace surcharge charged on the basic fee only, free partial renewal by design and by contracting party, and term limits that differ by designated country.
Taiwan Design Maintenance: Management Manual
A practice manual for Taiwanese design patent annuities: the anchor is the publication date rather than the registration date, the due date is the day before the anniversary, the grace surcharge accrues at 20% per month up to 100%, restoration costs three times the fee, and the flat-amount reduction brings the first three years down to zero.
Japan Design Maintenance: Management Manual
A practice manual for Japanese design (isho) annuities: the right arises on payment of a single year's fee, unlike the bundled first three years for patents; due dates on the registration anniversary; a grace period at double the fee; a restoration fee far lower than for patents; and the complete absence of any reduction for designs.
Canada Design Maintenance: Management Manual
A practice manual for Canadian industrial design maintenance: a single payment due by the 5th anniversary of registration and nothing thereafter, the absence of any restoration if that one deadline is missed, the term split between the current and former Act, and the fact that, unlike patents, designs have no small entity reduction.
United States Design Maintenance: Management Manual
US design patents have no post-grant maintenance fee events. This is a US design maintenance manual where you only manage one thing: the term running from the grant date (15 years / 14 years under the former law) and the resulting expiration date.
China Design Maintenance: Management Manual
A manual for managing maintenance fees for Chinese designs (外观设计). It covers deadline calculation under the annual system counted from the filing date, grace periods and surcharges, restoration, fee reductions, official fees, and a case management checklist.
Korean Design: Partial Examination vs Full Examination — Which Track?
Korea runs two examination tracks for designs — partial and full. Compare scope, eligible Locarno classes, time to grant, and post-grant stability to choose the right path.
Korean Design Right vs. Patent: Looks, Function, or Both?
Korean design rights protect appearance; patents protect function. Compare term, fees, dual-protection options, and GUI/screen-design filings under KIPO practice.
Design Infringement in Korea: Whole-View and Dominant-Feature Tests
Korean courts test design infringement through whole-view observation supplemented by dominant-feature analysis. A practitioner's four-step framework, from product similarity to design-around limits.
Korea's Related Design System: Protecting Design Variations
Korea's related design system protects variations of a base design as separate rights. Filing window, requirements, exclusive-licence limits, and practical strategies.
Korean Partial Design Applications: Protect Only the Key Part
A partial design protects a key portion of an article, not the whole. We map the Korean Design Protection Act drawing rules (solid + broken lines), naming conventions, Hague filings, and KR/US/JP differences.
Korean Screen / GUI Design Applications: A Practical Guide
The 2021 amendment brought screen designs themselves into the scope of Korean design protection. We cover registration formats, animated GUI drawings, Hague filings, and how design rights compare to patent and copyright.