A major K-culture project designed to take Korean pop culture onto the global stage has suddenly found itself at the centre of a trademark controversy. FANOMENON, the ambitious initiative being promoted through the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange, was expected to bring together K-pop, fandom and a large-scale international festival concept.

Instead, questions are now being raised over who initially secured the project’s name overseas, why the arrangement was structured that way, and what happened around the time the trademarks were filed in the United States.

What is FANOMENON and why is it such a major K-culture project?

FANOMENON is a large-scale K-culture initiative promoted by the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange, a presidential advisory body established to strengthen the global expansion of Korean popular culture.

Its name combines “fan” and “phenomenon,” reflecting the project’s focus on fandom as a major force behind the international growth of K-culture.

The concept goes beyond a conventional K-pop concert. Organizers have described FANOMENON as a broader festival and awards project that would combine K-pop performances, fandom activities and other elements of Korean culture while encouraging international visitors to travel to South Korea.

The first major domestic FANOMENON event is scheduled for December 2 to December 12, 2027, with Seoul Arena in Seoul and KINTEX in Goyang among the planned venues.

The scale being discussed is substantial. The government and organizers have projected approximately 520,000 visitors, including international tourists, and more than 1 trillion won in economic impact.

The project is also designed as a public-private collaboration rather than a JYP-only undertaking.

South Korea’s four major entertainment companies — HYBE, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment — have been working toward a joint corporate structure intended to support the global festival project.

The international ambition does not stop with the first domestic event. Organizers previously announced plans for a large-scale FANOMENON festival in Los Angeles in May 2028, with the project envisioned as a global K-pop festival modeled in part on the scale and international appeal of Coachella.

That ambitious structure is what makes the trademark question particularly significant.

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JYP Entertainment filed 11 FANOMENON trademarks in the U.S.

According to U.S. trademark records, JYP Entertainment filed 11 separate FANOMENON applications on November 14, 2025.

The original applicant listed on the filings was JYP ENTERTAINMENT CORPORATION.

The applications were not limited to the name of a music festival. They covered a broad range of categories, including:

Category	Areas covered by the applications
Merchandise	Clothing and footwear
Entertainment products	Toys and dolls
Printed goods	Printed materials
K-pop merchandise	Light sticks
Commercial services	Retail and distribution services
Digital services	Telecommunications and streaming
Live events	Concerts
Entertainment	Entertainment services
Awards	Awards ceremonies
Event access	Ticketing

The applications claim priority based on earlier Korean trademark applications submitted on October 2, 2025.

One important distinction has become central to understanding the dispute: these are trademark applications, not 11 completed trademark registrations.

U.S. records show that at least some of the applications remain under examination.

That means the issue is not that JYP has already obtained final registration for every category. The scrutiny instead focuses on the fact that JYP Entertainment was the original applicant and therefore initially controlled the trademark filing process.

Why the November 14, 2025 filing date attracted attention

The date of the U.S. applications added another layer to the story.

JYP founder Park Jin-young was undertaking an official U.S. trip from November 13 to November 18, 2025, with government travel expenses provided for his committee-related duties.

On November 14, the same day the FANOMENON trademark applications were filed in the United States, Park reportedly held an official meeting with Republic Records executives Monte Lipman and Avery Lipman.

According to reporting by Sports Kyunghyang, discussions during the meeting involved a potential mega-event, local media strategy and possible avenues for collaboration.

JYP’s U.S. FANOMENON trademark filings were submitted on that same U.S. date.

The timing has consequently become part of the scrutiny surrounding the arrangement.

However, the timing itself does not establish that government funds were used to file the trademarks or that wrongdoing occurred.

The committee has maintained that private portions of Park’s schedule were handled separately and that the trademark filing was part of an effort to secure the FANOMENON brand internationally.

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The committee says the trademark ownership is intended to change

As questions grew, the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange offered an explanation for why JYP was initially used to file the overseas trademarks.

In statements issued on September 24 and 25, the committee said:

“JYP is currently proceeding with the priority filing process to quickly secure rights in overseas markets, and the overseas trademark rights are scheduled to be transferred to a dedicated corporation that will handle the execution of the ‘FANOMENON’ event in the future.”

The explanation presents JYP’s current position as an interim arrangement rather than the intended permanent ownership structure.

There is also a domestic precedent for the arrangement.

JYP initially filed the domestic trademark and later transferred 50% of the trademark rights to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, creating a joint domestic rights arrangement.

The committee said the remaining JYP-held share is also intended to be transferred to the dedicated corporation that will eventually operate the main event.

For the overseas trademarks, however, JYP is proceeding with the filings first. The committee said the precise division of rights would be discussed and finalized after the overseas filing process is completed.

This means the current U.S. filing structure and the planned long-term ownership structure are not necessarily the same.

Government funding and public accountability are also part of the discussion

The trademark issue has raised broader questions because FANOMENON involves both public-sector participation and private entertainment companies.

The committee said it would establish institutional safeguards intended to protect the project’s public accountability, including mechanisms related to the reinvestment of revenue generated through event operations.

It also said it would continue pursuing FANOMENON while ensuring that the project operates on the basis of public accountability and transparency.

At the same time, the government has emphasized that FANOMENON is being led by the private sector rather than being a government-run concert.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism allocated 15 billion won in its 2027 budget for measures associated with the wider K-culture effort surrounding FANOMENON. These measures include tourism promotion and support for participating small and medium-sized businesses.

According to Seoul Economic Daily, that support is not intended to directly finance the staging of the event itself.

Bae Hyun-jin says Park Jin-young should face National Assembly scrutiny

The controversy has now moved into the political arena.

People Power Party lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin announced that she intends to summon Park Jin-young and JYP Entertainment for a National Assembly audit.

Bae has questioned why JYP was selected to file the overseas trademarks, when the rights will actually be transferred and whether the arrangement received sufficient review.

In a social media statement, Bae wrote:

“When I raised issues regarding the fact that Chairman J.Y. Park’s company, JYP, exclusively applied for the trademark rights of a mega-scale government performance project promoted by the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange, they issued a statement saying they ‘plan to transfer it to an event corporation.’”

She continued:

“It remains unclear why it was done this way in the first place, when it will be transferred, or whether proper review was even conducted. Chairman J.Y. Park’s position, which holds ministerial rank, was created for public interest. The public has never tolerated someone taking overseas business trips with government funds while conducting private business, making it necessary to investigate this matter.”

Bae then announced her intention to seek Park’s attendance at the parliamentary inspection, saying:

“Inevitably, we plan to summon JYP and Chairman J.Y. Park to the National Audit. As widespread criticisms and concerns in the popular culture industry suggest, he must explain directly to the public whether this constitutes preferential treatment or a hotbed of corruption. We dislike ‘unfairness’ most of all.”

She concluded:

“For the record, I am a fan of several artists under JYP.”

Bae’s statements are allegations and political criticisms of the trademark arrangement, rather than findings that JYP or Park Jin-young have committed corruption or received improper preferential treatment.

Park Jin-young’s dual role adds another layer to the issue

Park’s position is particularly relevant because he has two roles connected to the project.

He is the founder and chief producer of JYP Entertainment, while also serving as co-chair of the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange alongside Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hwi-young.

The co-chair position carries ministerial-level status.

Park has previously said he serves on a non-standing basis and has declined ministerial-level protocol and compensation.

The overlap between his public cultural-policy role and his position within a private entertainment company is therefore central to the questions surrounding the trademark arrangement.

The committee, however, has maintained that the filing was intended as a practical step to secure FANOMENON’s name internationally before the rights are transferred to the dedicated event entity.

FANOMENON was always intended to be bigger than JYP

The current controversy should also be viewed against the project’s earlier development.

FANOMENON did not originate as a JYP-only project. Earlier plans involved HYBE, SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment working with the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange to create a global festival platform.

In April 2026, the four agencies said they were preparing to establish a corporation to advance the FANOMENON event.

The companies described the planned joint venture as a collaboration model intended to explore new opportunities for expanding Korean culture internationally.

By July 2026, the committee had unveiled a more detailed implementation plan for the 2027 event.

Park Jin-young said at the time:

“This began as a public-interest effort to introduce Korean music to the world.”

He also emphasized the importance of financial sustainability:

“The most important thing is that this will make money. It is impossible to attract global artists and companies to an event that does not turn a profit.”

Those statements underline the project’s intended public-private structure, while the current dispute is focused specifically on how the FANOMENON intellectual property is being secured and how those rights will ultimately be transferred.

What happens next with the FANOMENON trademark applications?

For now, JYP remains the original applicant on the U.S. FANOMENON trademark applications, while the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange says the overseas rights are intended to move to a dedicated corporation once the filing process is completed.

The U.S. applications remain at the application stage, and available records do not establish that all 11 have received final registration.

The National Assembly scrutiny announced by Bae Hyun-jin could bring further questions about the decision-making process, the timing of the filings and the planned transfer of rights.

Meanwhile, the larger FANOMENON project continues to move forward.

The inaugural domestic event remains scheduled for December 2–12, 2027, with organizers targeting hundreds of thousands of visitors and an eventual international expansion beginning with Los Angeles in May 2028.

For JYP and the committee, the immediate challenge is therefore to establish a clear legal structure for the FANOMENON brand while demonstrating how the public-private partnership will operate transparently as the project approaches its first major event.

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Conclusion

FANOMENON was conceived as a major international K-culture project involving the government-backed Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange and South Korea’s four major entertainment companies. Its planned 2027 domestic event and 2028 Los Angeles expansion underline the scale of the ambition.

The controversy now centres on the fact that JYP Entertainment filed 11 U.S. trademark applications under its own name in November 2025, with the committee saying those overseas rights are intended to be transferred to a dedicated corporation.

The timing of the filings during Park Jin-young’s official U.S. trip and his dual role as JYP founder and committee co-chair have prompted further questions from Bae Hyun-jin. At this stage, however, allegations of preferential treatment or corruption remain allegations, not established findings.

The trademark applications, the committee’s planned transfer structure and the announced National Assembly scrutiny will determine how the issue develops as FANOMENON moves closer to its first major event.

Source/Research Disclaimer: This article has been prepared based on thorough research of the sources provided with the original material, including official project information, U.S. trademark records, government-related reporting and statements attributed to relevant officials and lawmakers. It reflects the information available from those sources and does not imply independent verification beyond what the supplied material supports. Allegations, criticisms and claims concerning preferential treatment, conflicts of interest or corruption are attributed to the individuals or reports making them and should not be treated as established findings unless confirmed by an appropriate investigation or authority.

Sources

• Korea.net – Fanomenon 2027 overview and official project plans
• Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange / government reporting via Seoul Economic Daily
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office – FANOMENON trademark record
• Sports Kyunghyang – U.S. trademark filing and Park Jin-young’s official trip timeline
• The Korea Times – National Assembly scrutiny over FANOMENON trademarks
• Yonhap News Agency – FANOMENON global festival plans
• Korea JoongAng Daily – National Assembly scrutiny of Park Jin-young’s U.S. trip
• JYP Entertainment FANOMENON trademark record, U.S. filing details

Featured Image Credit: JYP Entertainment