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ENGLISH CORPORATE NAMES CAN NOT BAR TRADEMARK REGISTRATION
Article 37 Item 11 of the Trademark Law pro-vides that a design using the name of another juristic person or other organization or nationally well known business, should not be registered as a trademark without the consent of the proprie-tor.
The IPO recently explained that protection of corporate and business names under the above provision only applies to those names registered according to statutory provisions or according to administrative regulations drawn up under statutorily granted powers. English corporate names registered with the Board of Foreign Trade (BOFT), Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), are registered under a regulation promulgated ex officio by the MOEA. Such registration is not made under the Company Law or under administrative regulations drawn up under powers granted by the Company Law. An English corporate name so registered with the BOFT does not have the exclusive rights of a corporate name, and therefore is not protected by Article 37 Item 11 of the Trademark Law.