Under the revised Korean Design Protection Act effective from July 1, 2014, the previous Similar Design System was abolished. In its place, the Related Design System has been implemented.

After the principal design was filed, the previous Similar Design could be filed at any time during the protection period of the principal design and the previous Similar Design of the registered principal design could be protected within the scope of the principal design.

 

However, since the application of a Related Design should be filed within one year from the filing date of the principal design application, if one year passes after the filing date of the principal design application, the Related Design cannot be filed. Further, please note that the scope of the Related Design is protected separately from that of the principal design and the protection period of the Related Design application is identical with the principal design thereof.