Korea Intellectual Property Office opens design examination course for Uzbek officials

The Korea Intellectual Property Office said Monday that its International Intellectual Property Training Institute will run a four-day online course on design examination for Uzbek design examiners and related officials, starting Tuesday.

The program is a follow-up to a comprehensive intellectual property cooperation memorandum of understanding signed by the Korea Intellectual Property Office and Uzbekistan's justice ministry on the sidelines of the first Korea-Central Asia summit on Sept. 16.

The course runs from Oct. 27 to Oct. 30 and covers Korean design examination practice, from search methods to the criteria used to judge infringement, including the Hague Agreement and its application and registration procedures, changes in design product classification as technology and design converge, and case studies of design infringement and imitation at home and abroad.

Instructors include officials from the Korea Intellectual Property Office, patent attorneys and university professors. The office said it expects the program to help create a stable environment for Korean companies seeking to enter the Uzbek market.

"This course is a follow-up project to the comprehensive intellectual property cooperation memorandum signed on the occasion of the Korea-Central Asia summit, and a meaningful occasion to pass on Korea's advanced design examination system and know-how in using the Hague system," said Song Seong-heon, head of the International Intellectual Property Training Institute. "We will continue active exchanges with Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries and sustain effective intellectual property education cooperation."