According to Art. 7, Para. 3 of the current Korean Trademark Act, it is stated that in case the other 
person's prior-registered trademark identical with or similar to the later-filed trademark has existed 
at the time of filing the later-filed trademark application, even if the prior-registered trademark is 
invalidated after filing of the later-filed trademark application, it will bar registration of the later-filed 
trademark by maintaining the status of prior-registration, at the time of filing the later-filed trademark 
application. 

However, recently the Constitutional Court of Korea judged that the above provision has not contributed 
to the purpose of the original legislation for preventing a mistake of quality or confusion of the source of 
the goods among general consumers and has infringed on the right of the later-filed trademark 
applicant without any reasonable reason, and the judgement was rendered that the above provision is 
unconstitutional. 

According to this judgment, the above provision became ineffective as of April 30, 2009.