공중보건과 상표권의 조화를 위한 연구 -Tobacco Plain Packaging을 중심으로-

Australia passed 「Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011」 in October 2011. This law prohibits the use of text, images, logos, etc which advertise packaging of all tobacco products of tobacco companies. Instead, they are obliged to include warning labels about harmfulness of cigarette and warning picture of gruesome image that represents the harmful effects of smoking. Plain Packaging is considered the highest level tobacco control policy in existence. Although Plain Packaging is a health policy for public health, it is a complex issue that can lead to many legal conflicts because various issues are confused. Of particular concern is that Plain Packaging conflicts with trademark rights of tobacco companies by restricting the use of trademarks recognized and protected by constitutions, domestic laws and international conventions. Thus, we summarized opinions of Plain Packaging on interpretations of Paris Convention and TRIPs Agreement, focusing on trademark rights among various international trade legal issues. And we reviewed what problems could occur in terms of constitutions and trademark laws when Plain Packaging is introduced in Korea. It is considered that Plain Packaging is highly likely to violate the Paris Convention and the TRIPs Agreement by excessively restricting trademark rights. It is also considered that it violates a constitutional principle of proportionality and impairs the concept, purpose and function of the trademark and restricts the use of the trademark. In order to solve these problems, we have proposed a tobacco package measures that can harmonize trademark rights and public health.