 |
The case in which KT Corp. blocked the trademark registration of Japan’s Hello Kitty in Korea |
|---|---|
 |
2009-09-01 |
 |
 Japan’s Sanrio Company, Ltd, the company famous for its Hello Kitty trademark, registered a trademark around in July 2005, with Kim & Chang as its agent for application for the trademark registration. The trademark is a heart-shaped figure with the letters “KT” engraved in it. KT Corp. tried to block the registration of such trademark since the application for such trademark was filed, but to no avail. KT Corp. also lost a case in the nullity trial on registration on January 30, 2009. However, after taking charge of the suit seeking for the cancellation of such trial decision, BKL LLC’s intellectual property group and BKL IP Group have gathered a lot of materials about the case and established a perfectly logical theory. As a result, we won a ruling from the patent court that KT was already a well-known trademark in Korea even before July 2005, considering that KT Corp. conducted CI work for KT, spent tens of billions of Korean won per year on corporate public relations and commercial advertisements, with its sales being over KRW 1.1 billion, and that more than 97% of Koreans are aware of KT and the corporate slogan of “Let’s KT.” Consequently, Sanrio Company’s registration of KT trademark was invalidated, and it has become impossible for other companies to use KT as a trademark. Therefore, KT Corp.’s trademark KT has gained a tremendous brand value. |
