Korean Firms' Intellectual Property Rights Protection Strategies to Deter Counterfeiting and Brand Piracy in Global Markets

한국기업의 해외시장에서의 위조상품 대응전략에 관한 연구

Recently, there has been rapid and spectacular increase in world wide counterfeiting and other forms of piracy. According to the World Customs Organization(WCO), counterfeiting accounts for 5 to 7 percent of global merchandise trade, equivalent to lost sales of as much as US$512 billion last year. Also Korean firms' damages arising from the infringement of intellectual property rights in global markets, especially in China market, are increasing. However, the existing studies on the intellectual property rights(IRP) protection have mainly focused on legal protection. Because the law is often not the best defense against theft of intellectual property rights, we must develop more effective defensive weapons for protection of IRP. Given this troublesome trend, the intention of this paper is to discuss strategic and tactical efforts, including legal protection, that can serve as proactive measures to deter counterfeiting and thus to assure the protection of Korean firms' intellectual property rights.