Under the former Criteria, trademarks consisting of foreign two letters or less, or one Korean/Chinese letter (character) have never been registered, since they are “simple and common,” and thus have no distinctiveness.

 

However, the revised Criteria, effective from January 1, 2014, allows the registration of trademarks consisting of foreign two letters or less, or one Korean/Chinese letter (character) if they are considerably known as a particular person’s trademark among general consumers based on use.