The terms used in this Act are defined as follows: <Amended on Dec. 2, 2011; Jul. 30, 2013; Jan. 28, 2015; Apr. 17, 2018; Jan. 8, 2019; Dec. 7, 2021; Mar. 28, 2023; Feb. 20, 2024>
1. The term "act of unfair competition" means any of the following acts:(a) An act of causing confusion with another person's goods by using a mark that is identical or similar to another person's name, trade name, trademark, or container or package of goods, or any other mark indicating another person's goods (hereafter in this item referred to as "another person's product mark"), which is widely recognized in the Republic of Korea; or by selling or distributing, or importing or exporting goods bearing such mark, without any good cause specified as follows:(i) Where a person has been using a mark identical or similar to another person's product mark without any improper purpose before another person's product mark becomes widely known in the Republic of Korea;(ii) Where a successor to a person specified in subitem (i) continues to use the relevant mark without any improper purpose;(b) An act of causing confusion with another person's business facilities or activities by using a mark that is identical or similar to another person's name, trade name, emblem, or any other mark indicating another person's business (including methods of selling products and offering services, or overall appearance of the business place such as signs, exterior, and interior decorations; hereafter in this item referred to as "another person's business mark"), which is widely recognized in the Republic of Korea, without any good cause specified as follows:(i) Where a person has been using a mark that is identical or similar to another person's business mark without any improper purpose before another person's business mark becomes widely known in the Republic of Korea;(ii) Where a successor to a person specified in subitem (i) continues to use the relevant mark without any improper purpose;(c) In addition to an act of causing confusion prescribed in item (a) or (b), an act of doing damage to distinctiveness or reputation attached to another person's mark by using a mark that is identical or similar to another person's name, trade name, trademark, or container or package of goods, or any other mark indicating another person's goods or business (with respect to a mark indicating another person’s business, including the methods of selling products and offering services or overall appearance of a business place such as signs, exterior, and interior decorations; hereafter in this item, the same shall apply), which is widely recognized in the Republic of Korea, or by selling or distributing, or importing or exporting goods bearing such marks without any good cause specified as follows:(i) Where a person has been using a mark that is identical or similar to another person's mark without any improper purpose before another person's name, trade name, trademark, or container or package of products, or any other mark indicating another person's goods or business becomes widely known in the Republic of Korea;(ii) Where a successor to a person specified in subitem (i) continues to use the relevant mark without any improper purpose;(iii) Where a case constitutes a good cause prescribed by Presidential Decree, such as non-commercial use;(d) An act of causing a misunderstanding about the place of origin by making false marks of the place of origin on goods, or on trade documents or in communications by means of advertisements of the goods or in a manner that makes the public aware of the marks; or by selling, distributing, importing, or exporting goods bearing such marks;(e) An act of making a mark that would mislead the public into believing that goods are produced, manufactured, or processed at places, other than the actual places of production, manufacture, or processing, on goods, or on trade documents or in communications by means of advertisements of the goods or in a manner that makes the public aware of the mark; or selling, distributing, importing, or exporting goods bearing such mark;(f) An act of falsely assuming another person's goods or an act of advertising any goods or making a mark in any manner of leading the public to misunderstand their quality, content, manufacturing process, usage, or quantity, in the goods or advertisement thereof, or selling, distributing, importing, or exporting goods using such method or mark;(g) An act of using a trademark, without good cause, on goods identical or similar to the designated goods of the trademark, or an act of selling, distributing, exporting, or importing goods with such trademark, by an agent or a representative of the owner of the trademark that is identical or similar to a trademark registered in any of the following countries or by a person who was an agent or a representative within one year of the date of such act:(i) Any party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (hereinafter referred to as the "Paris Convention");(ii) Any member state of the World Trade Organization;(iii) Any contracting state of the Trademark Law Treaty;(h) An act of registering, holding, transferring, or using a domain name identical or similar to, another person's name, trade name, or trademark, or any other mark, which is widely recognized in the Republic of Korea, by a person who does not have a legitimate title for any of the following purposes:(i) The purpose of selling or lending a mark, including a trademark, to a person who has a legitimate title concerning the mark or a third party;(ii) The purpose of preventing a person who has a legitimate title from registering or using a domain name;(iii) Other purpose of obtaining any commercial profits;(i) An act of transferring or lending goods whose shape has been copied (referring to the form, image, color, gloss, or any combination thereof, including the shape of any prototype and the shape in goods brochure; hereinafter the same shall apply) from the goods manufactured by any other person; exhibiting such goods for transfer or lending; or importing or exporting such goods: Provided, That either of the following acts shall be excluded herefrom:(i) An act of transferring or lending goods whose shape has been manufactured by counterfeiting the shape of the other goods for which three years have elapsed from the date the shape of the other goods, including the production of the prototype, was completed; exhibiting such goods for transfer or lending; or importing or exporting such goods;(ii) An act of transferring or lending goods whose shape has been manufactured by counterfeiting the common shape of goods that are identical to the goods manufactured by any other person (where the goods of the same kind are nonexistent, referring to other goods whose function or utility is identical or similar to the relevant goods); exhibiting such goods for transfer or lending; or importing or exporting such goods;(j) An act of unfairly using information which includes another person’s technical or business ideas with economic value in the process of negotiating or conducting transactions such as a business proposal, auction, and public offering for his or her business interests or the business interests of a third party in violation of the purpose of the provision or an act of providing such information to another person so that he or she can take advantage of it: Provided, That this shall not apply if the person provided with such ideas is already knowledgeable about them or such ideas are well known in the relevant industry;(k) An act of unfairly using data (referring to technical or business information provided to a specific person or a large number of specific persons for business, a substantial amount of which has been accumulated and managed by electronic means (excluding trade secrets defined in subparagraph 2), among the data defined in subparagraph 1 of Article 2 of the Framework Act on Promotion of Data Industry and Data Utilization; hereinafter the same shall apply), which falls under any of the following:(i) An act of acquiring data by theft, deception, illegal access, or other improper means, or using or disclosing the acquired data by a person who does not have authorized access to the data;(ii) An act of using or disclosing, or providing data to a third party by a person authorized to access the data under a contractual relationship, etc. with the owner of such data to obtain improper benefits or to cause damage to the owner of the data;(iii) An act of acquiring data, or using or disclosing the acquired data with knowledge of the fact that any of the acts prescribed in subitem (i) or (ii) has occurred;(iv) An act of providing, importing, exporting, manufacturing, transferring, lending, transmitting, or exhibiting for transfer or lending, without legitimate authority, technologies, services, devices, or parts of such devices whose main purpose is to evade, remove, or alter (hereinafter referred to as "circumvention") technological protection measures applied to protect data: Provided, That the same shall not apply where devices or parts of such devices that are designed to circumvent technological protection measures are manufactured for research into and development of such measures;(l) An act of infringing on another person's economic interests by using mark that can distinguish the individual's identity, such as name, portrait, voice, or signature, which is widely recognized in the Republic of Korea and has economic value, for one's own business without permission, in a manner contrary to fair commercial practices or competition order;(m) Any other acts of infringing on other persons’ economic interests by using the outcomes, etc. achieved by them through substantial investment or efforts, for one’s own business without permission, in a manner contrary to fair commercial practices or competition order;
2. The term "trade secret" means information, including a production method, sale method, useful technical or business information for business activities, which is not known publicly, is managed as a secret, and has independent economic value;
3. The term "infringement of trade secrets" means any of the following acts:(a) An act of acquiring trade secrets by theft, deception, coercion, or other improper means (hereinafter referred to as "act of improper acquisition"), or subsequently using or disclosing the trade secrets improperly acquired (including informing any specific person of the trade secret while under a duty to maintain secrecy; hereinafter the same shall apply);(b) An act of acquiring trade secrets or using or disclosing the trade secrets improperly acquired, with knowledge of the fact that an act of improper acquisition of the trade secrets has occurred or without such knowledge due to gross negligence;(c) An act of using or disclosing trade secrets after acquiring them, with knowledge of the fact that an act of improper acquisition of the trade secrets has occurred or without such knowledge due to gross negligence;(d) An act of using or disclosing trade secrets to obtain improper benefits or to cause damage to the owner of the trade secrets while under a contractual or other duty to maintain secrecy of the trade secrets;(e) An act of acquiring trade secrets, or using or disclosing them with the knowledge of the fact that they have been disclosed in the manner prescribed in item (d) or that such disclosure has been involved, or without such knowledge due to gross negligence;(f) An act of using or disclosing trade secrets after acquiring them, with the knowledge of the fact that they have been disclosed in a manner prescribed in item (d) or that such disclosure has been involved, or without such knowledge due to gross negligence;
4. The term "domain name" means a number, a letter, or a sign, or any combination thereof, which constitutes an Internet address composed of numbers.[This Article Wholly Amended on Dec. 21, 2007]