• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.66 no.1
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• pp.28-41
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• 2016

This paper is aimed at intensively examining the scope of legal protection for fashion designs under the Design Protection Act of Korea. For this purpose, this looked into how the Act defines the concept of design, its requirements, and the prerequisites for acquiring design rights. The study also reviewed statutory interpretations over the judgment of the identity and similarity of designs. For more practical and substantial discussions, this research utilized cases and precedents, which had relevant legal principles. This study also figured out how both the requirements for a design definition - such as merchantability, configuration, visibility, and aesthetics - and the prerequisites for acquiring design rights - like industrial applicability, novelty, and creativity - are interpreted and utilized in actual circumstances. The authors expressed their opinions regarding the criteria of judging the identity and similarity of designs, based on a study of previous cases. Previous rulings show that aesthetics of the exterior design is used as the criteria for determining whether a design is same or similar. So, two designs, which have different specific details, are deemed same or similar, if both designs show similarity in the dominant elements. This is because both designs will produce similar aesthetic qualities. However, if the dominant elements of a design are part of the public domain, and the specific details characterize the design, the latter has to be evaluated in the process. This paper examined scope of legal protection for fashion designs using relevant precedents. The study may serve as academic materials that lead to the establishment of rightful ownership in creative activities.