Focus Practice · K-Beauty & Aesthetic Medicine
A clinic or brand that runs well in Korea cannot always start in the United States the same way.
Each state regulates who may own and operate a medical practice differently, and cosmetics and aesthetic-medicine products bring FDA rules, advertising restrictions, distribution agreements and trademark questions with them.
The firm does not stop at forming a U.S. entity. It works through who owns the company, who actually provides the medical services, how the Korean parent supplies its brand and operating know-how, and how it is paid for them — measured against how the business will really be run.
In most states, a company that is not owned by licensed professionals cannot own a medical practice. This shapes the whole structure.
Injectables and device-based treatments have their own rules on physician supervision and on what each type of practitioner may do.
Brand, protocols and management support have to be supplied under agreements that hold up, and the fees have to work under both fee-splitting rules and tax rules.
Whether a product is a cosmetic or a drug turns on what it claims to do. Many K-beauty claims sit close to that line.
01
In most U.S. states, only licensed medical professionals may own a medical practice. The common answer is to separate the practice from the business that supports it.
An MSO (Management Services Organization) is a company that handles staffing, facilities, marketing, administration and management support rather than medical care. Whether the structure holds depends on how the management agreement, the fees and the control provisions are drafted.
02
Licensing rules differ from state to state, so a structure built for one location may not carry over to the next.
The firm reviews franchise and licence models, brand and protocol agreements with local physicians, and the rules limiting how fees may be shared and patients referred — so that opening a fifth site does not mean rebuilding the first.
03
Whether a product is treated as a cosmetic or as a drug depends on what it claims to do — the line many K-beauty claims sit on.
The firm reviews manufacturing facility registration and cosmetic product listing (submission of a product list to the FDA) under MoCRA, responsible-person obligations, labelling and ingredients, and the support required for marketing claims. Distribution, retailer and online-channel agreements are checked against the same claims.
04
Clearance searches and filing strategy at the USPTO across the relevant classes, transliteration of Korean marks, oppositions and bad-faith filings by others, and trade dress for packaging.
Ownership and licensing of the brand between the Korean parent and the U.S. entity are put in writing before revenue starts.
05
Entity form and state of formation are chosen against the operating plan, including professional-corporation requirements where shares must be held by a licensed professional.
Royalty and management-fee flows are tested under the Korea–U.S. tax treaty, along with state tax exposure for a brand selling nationwide.
06
Market-entry planning with sequence and cost, diligence for investors and buyers of U.S. beauty assets, and employment and contractor classification for clinical staff.
Privacy obligations for before-and-after photographs, consultation records and consumer data are reviewed against how the clinic actually keeps them.
01
Ownership structure, the physician relationship, the management agreement and the tax position are settled together before the lease is signed.
02
Product classification and claims are reviewed alongside registration, the distributor agreement, trademarks and the state tax footprint.
03
Brand and protocol control, the fee structure, and franchise and licensing obligations are reviewed against each state's rules before the model is repeated.
Tell us what stage you are at and what you are planning. We will look at which questions have to be settled before the structure is fixed.
Please do not send trade secrets, personal data or other sensitive material before the firm has confirmed that it is able to review your matter.