Legal Q&A

Tired of non-expert, ad-driven answers to your legal questions?
Daeryun's specialist attorneys are here to answer.

My intellectual property rights have been infringed, and I want to file a lawsuit.

Hello, I run a small business. The person I was in partnership with left, so now I run it alone. But a few months later, I found that they were running a business by copying exactly the products I made. The design was something I participated in and created together with a designer, and they took even that exactly as it was. It is very unfair; can I file an intellectual property lawsuit over this?

Intellectual property rights

Intellectual property infringement lawsuit

Intellectual property attorney

Intellectual property infringement

Answer

Published: 2023-04-19

Author : Kuk Il KIM

You have inquired about an intellectual property lawsuit. In your situation, under the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act, you may claim damages.

However, before preparing the lawsuit, you must prove whether intellectual property infringement occurred.

A process is needed to confirm what harm you suffered due to the other party's misappropriation, and whether such harm resulted from intellectual property infringement.

It is advantageous to respond to the lawsuit after carefully preparing materials that can prove this.

In addition, if you have created such a copyrighted work, it is advisable to protect your rights to your own creation through a design registration application.

If you register a design right, you can be legally protected from the date of establishment registration, for up to 20 years after the application, so to protect your design, it is good to register a design right in advance.

However, proving the harm caused by an act of unfair competition, and preparing the related materials, may feel burdensome.

We recommend that you prepare the lawsuit after obtaining legal advice from a specialist attorney who has handled many intellectual property-related lawsuits.