South Korea will ban import of products that violate local intellectual property rights, starting from July, the government said Monday.

According to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the new rules will apply to products that are in breach of local patents, design, logo and other exclusive rights held by South Korean companies.

The move comes after a law was passed by parliament to authorize the Korea Customs Service (KCS) not to exempt such products and the Korea Trade Commission to provide customs officials with a full list of such products and to take tough administrative actions such as the issuing of fines.

The new law was enacted after a survey conducted on 2,107 local companies late last year reflected the need for a tougher stance on imports.

In 2008, losses incurred by intellectual property rights violations reached 316.6 billion won (278.3 million U.S. dollars), up 63.2 percent from the previous year.

(Source: Xinhua)

2013-07-17