Design can be defined as a broad concept including visual communication designs related to products, advertisements, graphics, and multimedia designs as well as environmental designs related to a living space or environment.

The design application system consists of the Substantive Examination System (SES) and the Non-Substantive Examination System (NSES).

The NSES applies to articles which are sensitive to trends and have a short lifecycle such as food products (A1), clothing (B1), accessories of dresses (B2), other accessories (B3), bags and wallets (B4), footwear (B5), parts of clothes or accessories (B9), bed linen, carpets (C1), household sanitary items (C4), items for congratulations and condolence (C7), household furnishings (small) (D1), teaching and painting materials (F1), stationery and writing supplies (F2), paper and printed materials (F3), packing containers (F4), computers (H5), fabrics (M1), and screen display designs. The SES applies to other articles such as toilet seats (B7), household items (C0), house-furnishing goods (C2), and others.

You may want to register your designs in new markets to obtain protection abroad. The Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs provides a centralized registration system where you can e-file up to 100 designs and target over 62 territories in one single application that you could use to claim priority on in further filings.

The Republic of Korea joined the 1999 (Geneva) Act of the Hague Agreement in March 2014. Any individual or business in the Republic of Korea can now file an international design application under the Hague System either through KIPO or directly with WIPO.