Court rules against LG Uplus in IoT service trademark suit

By Yoon Sung-won

LG Uplus may lose its exclusive right to use the text trademark of its home Internet of Things (IoT) service brand “IoT@home” following a court judgment Thursday.

Expectations are that the telecom company, which has led the home IoT service drawing about 500,000 subscribers here, will have to change its marketing strategy following the court ruling.

According to the Patent Court of Korea, it has ruled against LG Uplus in a lawsuit, which the telecom company filed against the commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) earlier on Friday.

“There is a need to allow anyone to use the trademark,” the justice department said. “We cannot say that allowing a specific body to use it monopolistically and exclusively will not harm public interest.”

The lawsuit has come after the KIPO rejected LG Uplus’ request to register its IoT service brand name. Citing clause 3 of article 6, section 1 in the Trademarks Law, the KIPO argued that it is a general remark of a product’s use like trying to register a smartphone’s trademark as “smartphone.” It also said “IoT@home” reminds anyone of IoT services for households, yet it is not distinctive enough to be a trademark and it does not present a new meaning in the combination of the terms “IoT,” “@” and “home.”

LG Uplus protested against the KIPO’s decision and filed for a patent trial with the Intellectual Property Tribunal, saying: “The trademark is like an email address and thus is strongly distinctive. Consumers can hardly perceive household IoT services after watching the trademark. Exclusive use of it does not undermine public interest because the company is the sole user of it as of now.”

But both the tribunal and patent court turned down the telecom company’s request.

According to LG Uplus, the KIPO rejected only the text trademark. Its graphic logo for the IoT@home services, on the other hand, has already been registered as an exclusive trademark, it said.

An LG Uplus spokeswoman said, “As of now, we do not plan to appeal to the Supreme Court. Instead, we are considering applying for the registration of the text trademark again.” She added that the company has not decided whether to change the text trademark for the second trial.

KT has successfully registered five trademarks for its home IoT services, including “KT GiGA IoT” on Nov. 30. The nation’s second-largest telecom company has also requested to register a more generic brand name, dubbed “GiGA IoT” without the company name, but the KIPO rejected it. The company has appealed against the KIPO’s rejection and is currently waiting for a court ruling, according to a KT spokeswoman.

SK Telecom has not registered its current brand name.