Eyewear startup Blue Elephant has been found to have filed and registered multiple design rights after a controversy over copying Gentle Monster. It is seen as an effort to strengthen intellectual property (IP) management after selling products without design registrations and facing copycat allegations.
According to the Ministry of Intellectual Property and the startup industry on the 27th, Blue Elephant filed 29 design rights from Nov. last year to Jan. this year. It requested all of them as "secret designs," and registrations were completed in Mar.–Apr. this year.
A secret design is a system under which the applicant requests that a design not be disclosed externally for up to three years from the date of registration of the design right. By not disclosing the design, infringement can be prevented and time can be secured to prepare for commercializing the product.
It is mainly used in industries with fierce design competition such as smartphones, home appliances, automobiles, and fashion. Because third parties cannot know the details of a design while it remains secret, even if infringement occurs, the right holder must notify the other party of the fact and details of the design registration before seeking an injunction against infringement.
Secret design registration is not unusual in the eyewear industry either. Because detailed designs such as frames, temple decorations, and lens shapes often tie directly to brand identity, there is demand to minimize exposure. Gentle Monster also registered 135 secrets out of 690 design rights it filed and registered. Among the disclosed designs are sunglasses, eyeglasses, and hats.
However, the industry is paying attention to when Blue Elephant filed its design rights. Founded in 2019, Blue Elephant gained recognition on social media (SNS) as the "cost-effective Gentle Monster."
The conflict escalated in 2024 when IICOMBINED, operator of Gentle Monster, raised allegations that some products copied its designs and pursued legal action. Prosecutors judged that since 2023 Blue Elephant sold sunglasses and other items by copying popular Gentle Monster products without separate design development staff, and in Mar. indicted former CEO A on detention.
Blue Elephant's design right filings were concentrated starting in Nov. last year, after the dispute surfaced. During filing, it also listed its in-house product design staff as creators.
Blue Elephant cited industry characteristics as the reason it had not filed or registered designs before the conflict with Gentle Monster. Because trends change quickly, it followed the practice of prioritizing speed to respond to the market rather than filing every individual design.
A company representative said, "As the company has grown and the scale of brand assets has expanded, the need for institutional protection has arisen, so we systematized design filings last year," and added, "Since last year, we have built a product design team and developed numerous proprietary products."
The representative added, "We are using the secret design system to secure fair competition aligned with market launch timing," and said, "We plan to disclose designs at the appropriate time in line with product launch stages."