Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣@wlf_warren Yeah, it is weird. I think the case is about them taking in a new name and performing/entering into contracts under that new name when their original contract is still valid. Unfortunately, the media misunderstood it as a trademark issue.
As long as no one has trademarked "NJZ" in South Korea, under the category "Entertainment" (or whatever it's exactly called), they're fine to use it. The real issue is their existing contract, as far as their company is concerned, it still is valid. The burden is on "NJZ" to prove to the court that it is null and void.
If they can't prove it, they're in to a serious legal trouble. They'll be fined for breached of contract. They can also get sued. All their existing deals will be cancelled, and those are breach of contracts too, which means they'll be fined, and if they fail to pay, they'll get sued.
(In Korea, the artists/models are expected to be "good" in reputation, if in any way the brand they're endorsing is damaged or they can no longer use the investments in endorsement materials, the artist/model is fined. AFAIK, we don't have that kind of a clause in the Philippines, even if the endorser gets into trouble, we still see their promotional materials everywhere. 😝)
Actually, it's surprising that someone is still signing them up for endorsements and other projects. Probably Western-controlled companies, who believes in "negative publicity is still good publicity".
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