비(非)물리적 또는 가상의 디자인 보호

Abstract

Due to rapid technological developments in the information and communications technology industries, non-physical or virtual designs have grown in significance in the past decades. Non-physical or virtual designs are designs that impact the appearance of products but which are implemented via software on screens, such as designs relating to screen displays, graphical user interfaces and screen icons. Internationally, these types of designs are recognised as registrable designs, in the European Union, the United States, and especially in Japan and Singapore among Northeast Asian country. However, their protection under Korea's design registration system is currently unsettled because they have been considered to be not an article or they have been transitory in nature and not permanent design features. Although Korea's design protection law protect designs including a graphic image on a screen as a part of the article, it is only intended to protect physical articles, not intended to protect a design for single graphic image or a non-physical or virtual design itself. Given the increasing role of virtual designs in technology, reforms are required to Korea's design protection law, to ensure that this valuable IP in virtual designs can be adequately protected in Korea. For this, the term of ‘article’ should be amended to be ‘product’ and/or to explicitly include non-physical products in the design definition rules. The treatment of virtual or non-physical designs should be also reconsidered by allowing consideration of the product in which the virtual or non-physical design is applied to in its active state, not just its resting state, when considering registrability.