JYP founder to face National Assembly scrutiny over 'Korean Coachella' trademark
President Lee Jae Myung and Park Jin-young, founder and chief producer of JYP Entertainment and co-chair of the presidential committee on popular culture exchange, hold K-pop merchandise ahead of the committee's launch ceremony at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, October 2025. Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-seog
Park Jin-young, founder and chief producer of JYP Entertainment, is expected to be called to testify at a National Assembly audit over his company's move to secure trademark rights to Fanomenon, a government-backed large-scale K-pop event.
Rep. Bae Hyun-jin of the main opposition People Power Party said she plans to summon Park, who also serves as co-chair of the presidential committee on popular culture exchange, to explain why his company applied for the trademark rights and how they would ultimately be transferred.
"The committee said the rights would later be transferred to the entity responsible for organizing the event," Bae wrote in a social media post Tuesday.
"But it remains unclear why it was handled that way in the first place, when the rights will be transferred and whether the arrangement was properly reviewed," Bae said. "It has become unavoidable for us to call Park to testify at the National Assembly audit."
Fanomenon, billed as Korea's answer to Coachella, is a global K-pop event being jointly organized by the presidential committee and major entertainment agencies.
Scheduled to run for 11 days in Seoul, Goyang and other locations in December next year, the event is expected to draw more than 500,000 visitors and generate an economic impact of nearly 1 trillion won ($735.8 million).
Controversies over the trademark emerged after TV Chosun reported that JYP Entertainment had applied to register the Fanomenon name. Under the arrangement, the domestic trademark rights would be jointly held by JYP and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, while JYP would initially hold the overseas rights exclusively.
The arrangement has raised questions over why a private entertainment company would hold exclusive overseas trademark rights to a publicly backed project receiving government funding and policy support, even on a temporary basis.
The committee said JYP Entertainment is handling the overseas trademark application process to "secure the rights as quickly as possible in foreign markets." It added that the rights "will later be transferred to a separate entity responsible for carrying out the event."