Coway has filed a lawsuit claiming that CUCKOO Homesys infringed on its design rights for its ice-water purifier product.
Coway said on the 11th that it filed a lawsuit against CUCKOO Homesys on the 28th of last month, claiming that CUCKOO Homesys' 'Zero 100 Slim Ice-Water Purifier,' launched in April last year, infringed on its intellectual property rights for its 'Icon Ice-Water Purifier.'
Coway's Icon Ice-Water Purifier was launched in 2022. The product design rights were filed in March 2022 and completed registration in February 2023.
Coway claims that CUCKOO Homesys' 'Zero 100 Slim Ice-Water Purifier' has infringed upon product appearance design and key technical features. In particular, they noted that specific design elements, such as the combination of two rectangular cuboids on the top and bottom, the length of each corner, and the layout of the front buttons and display, are similar.
Coway raised design infringement issues by sending a warning letter and a certificate of content to CUCKOO Homesys last August, but CUCKOO Homesys did not accept it. As a result, Coway filed a lawsuit against CUCKOO Homesys.
A representative from Coway said, "As the indiscriminate infringement of intellectual property rights by latecomers has been increasing recently, we plan to respond firmly to actively protect our unique technical capabilities and originality."
A representative from CUCKOO Homesys stated, "CUCKOO believes it holds design rights and does not consider it an infringement" and "expressed deep regret over Coway's lawsuit, adding that they would respond after internal discussions."