The number of designs under the Hague System grew by 3.8 percent last year to reach 19,429 designs, marking 11 consecutive years of growth, WIPO said Wednesday in a press release.

The Hague System is a leading international application and registration procedure administered by WIPO. It allows design right holders to obtain protection in multiple states upon a single application.

(World Intellectual Property Organization)

By country, Germany took the lead with 4,261 designs, followed by Switzerland, South Korea, the US and France. Showing the fastest growth was Belgium, which marked a 189.2 percent on-year increase.

In terms of individual companies, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics were listed as the No. 1 and No. 2 design applicants, with 762 designs and 668 designs respectively. The two South Korean players pushed Dutch furniture company Fonkel Meubelmarketing from the top spot in 2016 to third place.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)

The US had previously said it would revise the measure by March 4, if necessary. But the measure remained unchanged despite South Korea’s request to cancel the decision on imposing hefty tariffs on Korean companies shipping more than 1.2 million washers to the US.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance, Kim Dong-yeon, has sent a letter on Sunday to the US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, to request exempting South Korea from steel tariff list, citing the “close bilateral relationship.”

South Korean carmakers and steelmakers have made direct investment to US, contributing to the US job market, wrote the minister, according to ministry officials. The minister also wrote that Washington should exclude Seoul from the list to prevent the US measure from hurting ties between the two, they added. Kim plans to meet his US counterpart at a G-20 finance ministerial meeting set to be held in Argentina later this week.

The Blue House had said last month the government would complain to the WTO if it failed to negotiate with the US for compensation with respect to the safeguard measure. The minister of trade, industry and energy also plans to call on international society to refrain from taking measures that harm free trade at the WTO ministerial meeting and a G-20 finance ministerial meeting.

The move came amid intensifying trade conflicts between the two countries, with South Korean steel, the third-largest exporter to the US, being subjected to additional tariffs.

Tension between the two hit new heights Sunday as Trump exempted Canada and Mexico, calling them important allies for the US.

Trump made it a conditional offer, saying a final decision would be made based on negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to a US administration official. NAFTA is an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico and the US creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America.

With the US exempting select countries, experts in South Korea raised concerns on the Korean government’s lack of strategy, saying that as a US military ally Korea should also be exempted from the steel tariffs.

National security adviser Chung Eui-yong met with the US Defense Secretary James Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster on Thursday, calling for the exclusion of Korea and stressing the importance of the alliance between the two nations. Their response was “positive,” according to the Blue House.

But others have urged the government to move cautiously by separating steel tariffs from the washer safeguard case.

The two nations are slated to hold the third round of talks to amend a bilateral free trade agreement at the end of this month.

“Korea should not put the steel issue on the negotiation table for the trade deal. The steel issue was not originally included in the negotiation agenda and the two should be handled separately,” said Choi Won-mok, a law professor at Ewha Womans University.

“If Korea is exempted from the steel tariff at the FTA negotiation table, it will be in a difficult position to demand what it originally wanted from the US,” he added.

Korea’s steel exports to the US stood at $3.2 billion last year, trailing only Canada and Brazil. The volume increased 21 percent from the previous year.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)

Most recently at the Integrated Systems Europe show held in Amsterdam this week, the company revealed a series of signage and transparent displays for enterprise use.

The main highlights of the exhibition included a transparent 55-inch OLED display, open frame OLED displays and the Even Bezel Video Wall.

“We are extremely proud of our leadership in the global B2B signage industry but even more proud that we are able to consistently offer such creative solutions for our vertical customers,” said Koo Kwang-mo, head of the information display business unit of LG Electronics B2B Co.

OLED, whose self-lighting pixels allow it to be made into much thinner and flexible forms than light-emitting diodes, has especially been touted for its potential for enterprise use because of its customizable qualities.

For instance, the LG OLED Twister showcased at ISE is an open-frame display whose curvature can be changed even after installation, allowing enterprises to create convex, concave, or even V-shaped configurations for their display needs.

The Even Bezel Video Wall, which is just 0.6 millimeters thick, offers minimal distractions with its ultra-narrow bezels, “making this product ideal for advertising high-end products in fashion and beauty,” according to LG.

In terms of commercial business, LG aims to double the sales of OLED TVs with its new 55-inch OLED TVs and AI-powered TVs this year.

LG plans to deliver around 5 million units of OLED TVs by 2020 to lead the high-end market that is seeing a major boom worldwide, with 15 companies having joined the OLED alliance.

As consumers increasingly turn to smaller screens such as smartphones for basic video viewing and with Chinese brands taking over the low-range market, companies such as LG are focusing their energies on the premium TV market — where OLED is quickly gaining ground.

According to numbers from research firm IHS Markit, OLED TVs made up nearly half of all premium TVs over $2500 sold in 2017, up from 15.5 percent in 2015 and 35 percent in 2016. LG currently holds the second-largest market share in premium TVs according to research, behind Sony.

The LG OLED Canyon on display at the Consumer Electronics Show 2018 in Las Vegas (LG)

At the Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas in January, LG picked up the best TV product award for the fourth consecutive year for the LG AI OLED TV.

The TV comes with Google Assistant built in and works with LG’s artificial intelligence system ThinQ, allowing users to use voice commands to operate the TV as well as search online and pull up media from their Google-connected phones.

During the LG Innofest held this week at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, southern France, the tech giant showcased a wide range of LG products equipped with its AI platform, DeepThinQ.

The TV will play an important part in building up an in-home ecosystem of connected devices including air conditioners and air purifiers, which will allow users to control all of their home appliances through Wi-Fi and customize settings to their personal needs through the ThinQ artificial intelligence system.

In a conference call announcing the company’s fourth-quarter performance, the company said that it would be focusing on solidifying its premium position in the TV market and increasing market share rather than the absolute number of sets sold.

“We expect that the entire OLED TV market will grow to about 5 million sets by 2020,” an official with the company said in the conference call.

By Ho-jung Won

(Korea Herald)

Samsung said in an official statement that such restrictions will limit choices of US consumers, bringing a loss to the market.

Samsung had until now remained silent about the possibility of the US ITC actually imposing additional tariffs on washer imports as a safeguard for its own industry, instead, offering an olive branch by starting an operation of a new washer plant in New Berry, South Carolina on Jan. 12.

“With this decision, the US consumers who want Samsung washer‘s innovative functions and designs are given the burden of purchasing them at higher prices.” the company said, while adding that the production and supplies at the new plant will continue without any problems.

Washing machines displayed at a shop in the US. (Yonhap)

LG strongly criticized the decision, saying it will inevitably harm the local job market.

“We are very disappointed in this misguided decision, which far exceeds what the US ITC recommended,” the company’s US branch said. “This is a textbook case about how certain companies can game the process to use trade laws to try to accomplish what they can’t accomplish in the marketplace.”

The latest ITC decision will hinder operations of the company’s new plant under construction in Tennessee, threatening local jobs, it said, as the operations of these factories would also be at risk, due to the ITC decision that will increase costs by far.

Both Samsung and LG export washers to the US manufactured from Vietnam and Thailand. A combined volume of the washer imports to the country is estimated to be over 2.5 million units a year, according to the industry.

Meanwhile, because exports of washing machines account for a small portion of Korea’s total exports, experts forecast the US safeguard restrictions would have a limited impact on the entire exports at less than 2 percent.

But the same restriction on the photovoltaic module exports would shave off about 10 to 30 percent of the total exports, since it is a larger industry, they said.

Some pundits advised the Korean government to grasp US President Donald Trump’s tactics for the upcoming renegotiations of the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement.

“President Trump seems to be taking pre-emptive actions before he addresses anti-free trade issues, possibly at Davos Forum,” said Junsok Yang, professor at The Catholic University of Korea.

Considering the latest ruling by the World Trade Organization in favor of Korea that the US imposed anti-dumping tariffs on Samsung and LG products through manipulated calculation in February 2013, the US ITC shouldn’t have made such a decision that goes against the bilateral FTA, Yang said.

“In my opinion, Samsung and LG should consider a withdrawal of their plants from the US, and should not yield to Trump,” he said. “The government should take strong action against the US restriction and down the road for FTA renegotiations.”

By Su-hyun Song

(Korea Herald)