An increase of 139% year-on-year! South Korea seized 456,000 suspected infringing products in 2020

On the 27th, the Korea Intellectual Property Protection Association ( TIPA) announced some of the achievements made in the customs clearance and market circulation stages over the past year.

According to the investigation, the number of counterfeit goods seized by South Korea attempting to cross the Korean border has increased significantly as South Korea has strengthened the joint law enforcement network of the Intellectual Property Protection Association and the Korean Customs on trade .

First, at the customs clearance stage, the Korea Intellectual Property Protection Association cooperated with customs across the country and supported the detection of 456,000 products suspected of intellectual property infringement in the past year , an increase of 139% compared to 2019.

Most of the counterfeit items are fake bags, wallets, shoes, clothing, etc. 60% of them are imported directly by private enterprises through international mail, but are discovered during the customs clearance stage.

Last year, inspections were also frequent to prevent counterfeit brand names from circulating in the market . Last year, the Korea Intellectual Property Protection Association inspected 2,338 brand names imported by teleshopping and other communication sellers and partner companies to see if they were counterfeit . The number of inspections increased by 83% from 2019 .

The number of sellers who accept inspections from the Korea Intellectual Property Protection Association before selling brand-name products has also increased significantly. In order to prevent disputes with consumers due to the sale of counterfeit and substandard brand -name products, a consensus has been reached to obtain confirmation from the Korea Intellectual Property Protection Association in advance .

An official from the Korea Intellectual Property Protection Association said : "Most of the items uncovered last year were probably purchased directly by consumers through e-commerce platforms or imported by fake sellers for sale through e-commerce businesses."

The Korea Intellectual Property Protection Association is currently supporting the development of an AI-based illegal product inspection system together with the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Korea Customs Service, and the National Information and Communications Industry Promotion Agency ( NIPA) to improve the efficiency of detecting counterfeit products.

Due to the active non-face-to-face market, the transaction volume of counterfeit goods on online shopping platforms and social networks has greatly increased . Sellers should not take risks for the sake of profit. Legitimate business is the right way.

South Korea

Infringement

Counterfeit goods