▲ A man in his 70s, suspected of setting successive fires at two buildings in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 20th, is being escorted to the Suseo Police Station in Seoul.
It has been confirmed that two workout equipment designs registered by a man in his 70s, identified as A, who committed a series of arson attacks in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, were registered under his own name not only domestically but also overseas in countries such as the United States and Brazil.
Although A claimed that patent law firms located in the two buildings he set on fire had defrauded him, domestic and international registration gazettes listed A as both the creator who designed them and the person holding the rights.
The patent law firms were found to have handled ordinary agency duties.
According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office's registered design gazettes, A registered a strength training equipment design in 2019 and another workout equipment design in 2020 with the intellectual property office.
Both gazettes listed A's name under both the creator item, which refers to the person who designed the equipment, and the design right holder item, which refers to the person holding the rights.
The strength training equipment registered in 2019 was applied for on April 17 of the same year and registered on August 23.
The agency work was handled by a patent attorney from Patent Law Firm B, located on the third floor of the Sinmyeong Building, which suffered the fire.
The drawings showed equipment in which supports on both sides sustain a cylindrical rod.
Images also showed a user standing on top of the rod, spreading both arms to maintain balance or rotating the body.
The equipment was described as a workout machine that improves muscular strength by stimulating small muscles of the body while balancing on a cylindrical rod and rotating 360 degrees to the left or right in a standing position.
The workout equipment registered in 2020 was applied for on February 12 of the same year and registered on December 4.
The agency was Patent Law Firm C, located on the fourth floor of the Hanyang Building, another fire-damaged building.
It was confirmed that both designs were also registered under A's name overseas.
Checking the United States Patent and Trademark Office gazettes, the design corresponding to the strength training equipment was registered on July 20, 2021, and the workout equipment design on February 8, 2022.
Gazettes from the National Institute of Industrial Property of Brazil also show that the two designs were registered on January 14 and August 25, 2020, respectively.
By cross-referencing the applicant and creator information and Korean application numbers listed in the overseas gazettes, they were confirmed to be identical to the two designs registered domestically.
World Intellectual Property Organization international design registration records show histories of both designs receiving protection in the European Union, Japan, and Canada.
Design registration is a system that protects rights concerning the shape and exterior of a product.
It differs from patents, which protect technological inventions such as operating principles or manufacturing methods, and trademarks, which protect indications distinguishing the source of goods such as product names or logos.
Choi Seung-jae, a professor of law at Sejong University, explained that registering a design and actually manufacturing and selling a product are separate matters, and holding a patent or design right does not mean one can make money.
The domestic registration of the two designs was processed by the patent law firms on behalf of A, and the rights were granted to A.
Nevertheless, A claimed that the two firms had deceived him and went to their offices in 2022 to threaten employees, it was revealed.
According to the ruling at the time, A visited the offices of the two firms in December of that year, sprinkled gasoline on employees, and threatened them with a lighter and scissors, leading the Seoul Central District Court to sentence him to two years and six months in prison in April of the following year on charges of special intimidation.
Police believe this crime stemmed from dissatisfaction surrounding the issue of issuing overseas trademark registration certificates.
It is reported that after commissioning overseas trademark registration, A was informed that only online registration certificates would be issued, but he demanded a paper registration certificate and suspected that the patent attorney had stolen his trademark.
It was reported that A showed an obsession, such as hanging the paper registration certificate in his home.
A is suspected of setting successive fires around 11:54 AM yesterday on the third floor of the Sinmyeong Building and around 12:01 PM on the fourth floor of the Hanyang Building, injuring about 10 people.
After fleeing the crime scene, he was emergency-arrested later that day near Dongmyo Station.
Being escorted to the police station, A answered reporters asking about his motive by saying that the patent law firms committed a fraud, and told the victims not to commit fraud in the future.
During police questioning, A largely admitted to the crime.
Police plan to apply for an arrest warrant for A today on charges of arson resulting in injury to an inhabited building.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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