1. Enactment of Anti-cybersquatting Laws In December of 2003, the Korean National Assembly enacted the Internet Domain Related Regulations (the "Regulations") to control and provide resolutions for domain name disputes with the Korean domain address "kr". The Regulations are expected to bring about changes in the resolution process to make it more efficient and to cover broader aspects of domain name disputes in relation to the Korean domain address "kr." The Regulations will bypass the current domain dispute resolution process governed by the Korea Network and Information Center, which has heavily relied on UDRP by ICANN and its processes. The Regulations are welcomed by the industry for introducing Korea's first anti- cybersquatting law that is realistic and practical. In particular, Article 12 of the Regulations, which specifically deals with domain name registrations made in bad faith, will allow rightful owners to protect their name value on the Internet. Article 12 (Regulation of Domain Name Registration made in Bad Faith) 1) Domain names shall not be registered by a third party with the intention of cybersquatting, or to gain financial benefit by disturbing and/or interfering with registration by the rightful owner. 2) Any rightful owner may request cancellation of a domain name registered in bad faith as stated in above section 1. 2. Unfair Competition and Trade Secret Related Rules Also in December of 2003, the Korean National Assembly amended the Unfair Competition and Trade Secret Related Rules (the "Rules"), and two of the most relevant changes are noted as follows. Firstly, the Rules have redefined the meaning of Unfair Competition to include cybersquatting on well-known names, marks, and trade names, whether they are the same or confusingly similar, in Korea. Again, the "purpose" element must be proven in order to consider registration by cybersquatting as Unfair Competition, and the Article 2, Section 2 (Ah) lists three illegal purposes as follows. 1) Purpose to assign, transfer, or issue license to the rightful owner for financial benefits; 2) Purpose to disturb or interfere with registration by the rightful owner; and 3) Purpose to gain other economic benefits. This Article differs from Article 12 of the Internet Domain Related Regulations (the "Regulations") in that the Rules include requirements of "well-known names, marks, and trade names, whether they are the same or confusingly similar, in Korea," and cover broader domains, whereas the Regulations only cover the Korean domain address "kr" and does not require the name to be "well-recognized in Korea." Secondly, the Rules include "making products of others to copy their forms" as part of Unfair Competition. It is further defined that "to copy their forms" is interpreted as reproduction of products of others by copying their shape, appearance, color, or combinations thereof, and thus prohibits production, sale, import, and export thereof. (Article 2, Section 1 (Ja)) Until now, protection from such reproduction was only available through a Design registration, but this has been found to be too time consuming. With the enactment of the Rules, however, well-known branded products can be better protected through combining the two-step protection, initiated by the Rules and further protected by the Design registration.