H.O.T. wins case over trademark rights against former SM Entertainment Director

[rockerista03.livejournal.com]

H.O.T. Wins Case Over Trademark Rights Against Former SM Entertainment Directorhttps://t.co/nAtdbuRLrt pic.twitter.com/txP5ZD4yqU

— Soompi (@soompi) July 7, 2020

“Kim,” who cast and produced the group H.O.T., will no longer hold the trademark rights to the group’s name and logo.

On June 25, the court ruled in Salt Innovation’s favor in their case against former SM Entertainment director “Kim” (Kim Kyung Wook). Salt Innovation is the production company behind H.O.T.’s reunion concerts. In 2018, the company was forced to remove the group’s name and logo from the promotional materials because they could not come to an agreement with Kim over the trademark rights.

Kim is well-known as a former SM Entertainment director and the producer who was in charge of H.O.T. In 1996, while in charge of SM Planning, he cast the members of H.O.T. and came up with their group name (an acronym for High-five Of Teenagers). He also established SM Enterprise, which joined with SM Entertainment after the H.O.T. members had signed an exclusive contract.

Based on this, Kim claimed that he was the rightful owner of H.O.T.’s trademark rights. Last month, Salt Innovation filed a nullity suit (a lawsuit to declare something null and void) against Kim’s claims. In the first trial, it was stated that when Kim received permission from the H.O.T. members to use their trademark rights, the members were minors and did not have legal representatives to sign or seal the agreement. As a result, the court ruled that it could not be said that the members had signed their rights away.

Apart from this case, Kim also sued Salt Innovation and H.O.T. member Jang Woo Hyuk for violating his trademark rights in December 2018. In September 2019, the prosecution ruled that they had not violated trademark and copyright laws. Kim ended up withdrawing the lawsuit in January 2020.

Source: SpoTV News via Soompi, @soompi

Comments

[aures.livejournal.com]

interesting article, thank you for sharing OP

[rockerista03.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no problem. tbh I was thinking about all the other celebrities who might go through the same thing. I remember reading YGE trademarking Lisa's name so that was the first thing I thought of when I saw this ngl

[aures.livejournal.com]

i was thinking the same!
what i find interesting is that he clearly trade marked everything by himself but because they were minors it's not valid. it makes me wonder if they had evidence they came up with ideas, too?

with YG it'll be different, they aren't or werent minors anymore (with them recently trademarking Lisa and earlier BB)

edit; also, they probably integraded it into their contracts now that everything belongs to the company unless agreed upon differently. meaning they probably signed for it earlier on already as adults or through a legal representative

[belintuchiha.livejournal.com]

FREAKING FINALLY
So happy for them!
I love them so much. To think the first sm group was already producing their own shit, doing their own choreo, writing their own lyrics.

[petecarl.livejournal.com]

Good for them! Nice to see a lawsuit ruled well for once.

[xoxkenzxox.livejournal.com]

Wow. I find it interesting that the trademark is held by Kim rather than the company, SM Enterprise. Trademarking names is so interesting and I understand why business want to keep them; however, it feels a little greedy since we are 20 years later and Kim is still trying to hold onto the trademark.

Good on the courts for their ruling.

[aeries-amethyst.livejournal.com]

Good for H.O.T. though it's wild that it took them so many years to do this. How does Kim hold the rights but not the company?

I think something similar would have happened to Shinhwa, but instead they bought themselves out of their contracts when they left SM or something? I vaguely recall SM wanting to keep Eric but not the rest of the members. I do wonder how they were able to keep the rights to their names and still be able to promote as Shinhwa.