Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hwi-young and JYP Entertainment CEO Park Jin-young, co-chairs of the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange, at a press briefing on plans for Fanomenon 2027. [Yonhap]
Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hwi-young and JYP Entertainment CEO Park Jin-young, co-chairs of the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange, at a press briefing on plans for Fanomenon 2027. [Yonhap]

Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hwi-young has stepped forward to address a controversy over the trademark for Fanomenon, a planned global K-pop festival, after it emerged that JYP Entertainment — led by Park Jin-young, co-chair of the presidential committee overseeing the event — had filed for the trademark on its own.

Choi posted a statement on his SNS account Thursday, saying he wanted to "explain the facts in greater detail" following recent media reports raising questions about the Fanomenon trademark.

The controversy arose after it became known that the trademark for Fanomenon had been filed solely by JYP, rather than by the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange. While the domestic trademark is held 50-50 between the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and JYP, some overseas trademarks are held by JYP alone — prompting criticism that it was inappropriate for a private company to own the trademark for an event involving government resources.

Choi explained the circumstances under which the trademark was filed shortly after the committee's launch on Oct. 1 last year. "As the official name of the event was publicly announced at that time, the committee needed to secure the trademark for Fanomenon quickly," he said. "The committee had just been launched and had not yet secured even a dedicated administrative staff, let alone an office. As a temporary measure, JYP Entertainment stepped in to secure the rights first in order to proactively protect the brand."

Choi also said the process of establishing a dedicated operating company and transferring the domestic trademark was proceeding as planned. "The four major K-pop agencies agreed to take the lead in establishing a dedicated company for the event, and a preliminary merger filing was submitted to the Korea Fair Trade Commission at the end of March this year," he said. "We received final notification on Sept. 17 that the plan did not violate fair trade law, and we are now moving forward with the formal incorporation process."

He added that once the dedicated company is established within October, JYP Entertainment plans to transfer its 50 percent stake in the domestic Fanomenon trademark to the new entity. The remaining 50 percent was already formally transferred to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in April, after the domestic trademark application was jointly re-registered in the government's name.

The overseas trademarks at the center of the controversy will also be transferred to the government and the dedicated company. Trademark applications were filed in the United States last November and in Japan in March this year. "Once the overseas filing procedures are complete and the necessary conditions are in place, the overseas trademark stakes will also be transferred to the government and the dedicated company," Choi said.

Park Jin-young, CEO of JYP Entertainment and co-chair of the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange. [Yonhap]
Park Jin-young, CEO of JYP Entertainment and co-chair of the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange. [Yonhap]

On why JYP was tasked with filing the overseas trademarks, Choi said the delay in establishing the dedicated company meant the government also needed time for legal review of overseas filings. "There were also practical constraints — the cost of filing in each country is significantly higher than domestically, and the relevant budget had not been allocated in advance," he said.

Choi said the decision to share the trademark with the private operating company was intended to respect the role of the private sector. "The key to Fanomenon's success lies in how actively leading K-pop artists participate and how well the event is planned and produced," he wrote. "The entities with unrivaled expertise and capability in this area are private companies, including the four major agencies. It would not be appropriate for the government to intervene in that."

He also pushed back against claims that public funds would flow directly into the festival. "The event will be funded entirely by private sources," Choi said, adding that the dedicated company plans to cover all costs through ticket sales, sponsorships, global broadcasting rights and exhibition booth sales.

On concerns that the major agencies would monopolize profits, Choi said all parties had agreed to reinvest any proceeds into the next Fanomenon. He also said the committee would issue public-interest guidelines each year for the event's implementation, and that the dedicated company would have to accept those guidelines in order to hold the event under the Fanomenon name.

Concerns persist within the music industry that the involvement of the four major agencies could allow their artists to dominate the festival's lineup. Choi, however, said the share of artists from the four major agencies would be capped at 30 percent of the total lineup, ensuring that artists from smaller and mid-sized agencies would have the opportunity to perform before domestic and international audiences. He added that the dedicated company, initially led by the four major agencies, could be opened to other companies if needed.

Meanwhile, Park, the committee's co-chair, is scheduled to appear as a witness at the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee national audit on Wednesday to answer questions directly about the trademark controversy.


shee@heraldcorp.com