NewJeans has surely marked its name down as one of the most successful girl groups in K-pop history. But for the five-member girl group, the name itself may become obsolete.

“NewJeans never dies” seems to be the new slogan for the girl group in the fight against its former — possibly, still current — agency ADOR. But ever since walking away from the company, the five singers haven’t been able to introduce themselves as NewJeans at public events. And rightly so, as it would technically be illegal for them to call themselves NewJeans.


While the agency strives to keep the members signed to the company, the quintet is quite sure that it’s all over between them and the label. The singers argue that all that’s left for them now is to fight for the NewJeans group name. In legal terms, that means the singers will have to negotiate the price of the “NewJeans” name tag with ADOR.

As common as it has become for K-pop groups to leave the agency they debuted under for various reasons, the issue of trademark and copyright has also become a rising issue in the K-pop world, resurfaced by the NewJeans-ADOR battle and the brief conflict between boy band The Boyz’s former and current agencies.

Rumor has it that NewJeans may be starting fresh as NewJeanz, but the complicated trademark and copyright laws present legal hurdles that will take months, if not years, to get over.

Individual introductions

To avoid possible litigation for illegally using another company’s trademark, NewJeans members have been spotted introducing themselves under their individual names — Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein — instead of the group name, namely on Dec. 7 during J-pop band Yoasobi’s concert where the singers took part as guests.

Until the five members of NewJeans can buy the name from ADOR, the singers can’t call themselves NewJeans — as the group belongs to the agency. The singers can’t perform the group’s songs without permission, but they still get paid when people listen to NewJeans’ songs or buy the group’s albums.

NewJeans members’ rights to their songs are confined to those of the performers, which are the people who play the musical instruments or use their voices to record a song, unless the members took part in writing the lyrics or composing the song. If they took part in writing or composing, then they are also given copyrights to the song, but only partially if they didn’t write the whole thing.

For NewJeans, the singers need to ask permission to perform the group’s songs because the members are not the copyright holders. That right falls into the hands of the songwriters, who typically entrust that right to the Korea Music Copyright Association (Komca) — which manages the copyrights and live performance rights of musical works.

So for the five singers, it would be just like getting permission to perform songs by aespa or IVE, even if they are the singers who recorded NewJeans’ songs.

The same would go for the three former members of girl group Fifty Fifty, who were kicked out of their agency Attrakt in October last year. The three singers will receive the profit share of the songs they recorded as part of the team, but the four new members who are currently members of Fifty Fifty won’t.

Singers’ rights

The five members still get paid when people buy NewJeans’ albums or stream or download the group’s songs online, as the performers of the song.

When a typical song is streamed, 6.5 percent of the revenue is given to the performer, which is around 7 won (0.5 cents) per stream. The artists get 2.25 percent of the revenue from an album sale, with albums usually costing around 20,000 won to 30,000 won.

Around half of the revenue, whether it’s a download or an album sold, goes to the album producer, which refers to the companies or entities that invested the money to produce the music. It usually includes the music distributor, producer and agency of the artist.

An artist’s agency typically gains what are called neighboring copyrights. They can decide whether they want to sell the usage rights of a song for other parties’ commercial purposes or allow the copying or distribution of music, but deciding whether to let another artist perform or remake the song is up to the copyright holder.

For instance, if the NewJeans members want to make a movie about themselves and use the group’s songs in the film, then they need ADOR’s permission, whereas Komca manages the live performance rights of their songs.

The Boyz and The Boys

Legalities aside, keeping the original name is crucial for K-pop bands.

Artists who part with their original agencies on less-than-amicable terms can end up using a completely different name for their new chapter, inevitably giving up the reputation and brand value they had with their first name.

Boy band Highlight, for instance, changed its name after its former agency Cube Entertainment refused to give up the trademark for Beast, or B2ST. The band still has dedicated fans, but the band's new name has to be explained as "formerly Beast" to the greater public. The same goes for the three members of JYJ, who are better known as the former members of TVXQ, and BB Girls, who have to explain to people that they used to be called Brave Girls.

K-pop agencies are becoming increasingly lenient toward giving members their group names. BTOB members kept the name and founded their own agency, BTOB Company, and the members of boy band Infinite were granted the band name. JYP Entertainment also let members of GOT7 use the band name for their upcoming album set for next year.

The Boyz, however, suffered a brief moment of conflict between its former and current agencies when the former agency, IST Entertainment, didn’t want to give the trademark to the new agency, One Hundred Label, for free. One Hundred Label blamed IST Entertainment for being selfish, but IST Entertainment had already offered free usage of The Boyz trademark to the members, just not the whole trademark to the company.

The two companies came to an agreement to let The Boyz members use the trademark for free. Free trademark usage lets the members continue their activities and promote their content using the name. But the right still belongs to IST Entertainment, which can call off the deal any time it wants — even though it’s highly unlikely that it would do so.

NewJeans and NewJeanz?

NewJeans just started its legal dispute with ADOR, so using the name is up in the air until the court delivers a decision.

Fans are hung up on the possibility that the singers could be going with NewJeanz, the name under which the five members set up a new Instagram account and started uploading new content last Saturday.

Even The Boyz were getting ready to begin as The Boys just in case things went south. One Hundred Label filed for a trademark right on the name The Boys on Aug. 28, when The Boyz members were still signed to IST Entertainment, but the patent hasn’t been approved by the Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) yet.

No one has filed for a trademark on NewJeanz — neither in English nor Korean — to KIPO as of December, but it is not clear whether it will even get approved if it is filed.

The similarity in names is tricky to define, but KIPO takes into account numerous factors, such as whether the competing companies work in the same industry, whether the word is widely used enough in real life to not be monopolized by one party or whether the similarity would confuse consumers.

For instance, AfreecaTV was able to change its name to SOOP even though the acting agency SOOP Entertainment filed for an injunction. The court decided to approve the name change because the two companies do not compete in the same industry, and the word soop, which means forest in Korean, is a word widely used by the public.

“The court also takes into account whether both competing parties will continue doing business in the same field, such as if one party — NewJeans — is likely to cease business but another one — NewJeanz — is starting fresh,” said Lee Cheol-woo, an attorney at Munhwa Lawoffice who has been registered as an entertainment specialist at the Korean Bar Association.

“The current legal trend is that trademarks are not given out too strictly because so many names have been patented now, and coming up with a completely new brand may become impossible in the coming days. Still, it may take some time for the court to make a decision if NewJeans members really do decide to file for a NewJeanz trademark.”

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]