At present, South Korea's design application system includes substantive examination system (SES) and non-substantive examination system (NSES).
At the request of the applicant, in order to speed up the application process of design, South Korea revised the Law on the Protection of Design on March 1988, and introduced NSES to some products with short life cycle.
According to NSES, the applicant can obtain the registration authorization within 1-2 months from the application date.
Although the design applied according to NSES has not been substantially examined, the correct result is the same as that under SES. However, if the right registered according to NSES does not meet the basic requirements of design registration, the right will be revoked or declared invalid through authorized objection or trial.
NSES is mainly suitable for short life cycle and trendy products, such as food, clothing, clothing accessories, other accessories, bags, wallets, shoes, sheets, carpets, packaging containers, screen display and so on.