Artist versus agency: Who should have trademark rights?

[broadcities]

Members of former K-pop girl group 2NE1 took to the stage at the Coachella music festival in California on April 16, six years after they parted ways. The dreamed-of reunion was a surprise to everyone including the group’s fans, and rightly so.

Having debuted in 2009 under YG Entertainment, the girl group saw massive success with their smash hits

Comments

[nudrive]

Haven't all of the 2ne1 members left YG now? Surely they could fight for their copyright like GOT7 did.

Idk I understand that companies created the group/ artist but they group wouldn't exist without the members so after they leave a company it should def be transferred to them (maybe for a fee idk) at the very least. Whilst in the company, shared ownership makes the most sense and then the artists can buy out the company when they leave. I think there would have to be some sort of transfer of money to incetivise the company? Bc otherwise companies would come up with crazy clauses to prevent it even tho iirc there's a new law in favour of the arists?

Yes please I think we def need some suitable tags for this!

[adenar]

I'm going to guess that the benefit of YG ent of 2ne1's sudden company-made disbandment, as well as the rift between the members as a result of their poor management in their last years of existence, was that it left the members too disorganised/too fractured/too on the back foot to take legal action if they wanted to. Add to that that Dara only left YG very recently and them suing YG for the trademark could have made things very difficult for her. I wonder if they'll try and get it back? I kind of think they should just be petty and call themselves 2NE2 or something lol.

[babycheeses1]

I kind of think they should just be petty and call themselves 2NE2 or something lol.

LOL the way I had the exact same thought 😂

[accioanime]

haha I love 2ne2!

I mean if Beast can rebrand themselves as Highlight and still do relatively well, how much more a more popular group like 2ne1? we all know who they are even with the new name, and I know the members are dying to get back on top so they really should just reunite.

[adenar]

haha maybe that can be my question prompt for the next ffa? 'if your group had to rename themselves due to copyright issues what do you think they could call themselves?'

[myrrhcat]

i wouldn't want to go up against a criminal enterprise masquerading as an entertainment company like yg. even if i won the trademark i'd probably end up banned from music shows or dead in a ditch.
but really, i think the artists should always maintain trademark rights - but i guess that can get complicated if they end up splitting into different groups or there's any kind of conflict between the members.

[memei5]

ideally, it should go to the artists themselves and they should be able to profit how they see fit. on the other hand, I can see why a company could claim it- it technically is their intellectual property and the groups legacy is directly tied to the company. also, idk how it would be to share the rights between ex-groupmates who've all left to different companies and I can imagine there might be consternation about how one person uses it vs another

The ideal situation would be Got7 taking their rights but I guess that's not feasible for all. Another preference would be something like Sistar, where Hyorin's been able to still utilise Sistar's music in her post-Sistar work without seemingly having many issues with Starship

[accioanime]

this reminds me of that whole drama when TLC had to pay $1 million per letter to own the rights to their name.