Opposition Lawmaker Calls for JYP Founder to Testify Over State-Backed Festival Trademark
People Power Party lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin has called on J.Y. Park to testify at a parliamentary audit over questions surrounding JYP Entertainment’s handling of international trademark rights for the state-backed Fanomenon music festival project.
A South Korean opposition lawmaker has called on J.Y. Park, the founder and chief producer of JYP Entertainment, to appear at a parliamentary audit and explain his agency’s role in securing trademark rights connected to a state-backed music festival project.
Rep. Bae Hyun-jin of the main opposition People Power Party made the demand Saturday, saying Park should testify before lawmakers about the handling of the international trademark for Fanomenon. Park also serves at the ministerial level as co-chair of the presidential Commission on Pop-Culture Exchange.
Fanomenon is expected to launch next year as a government-led international music festival. The project has a budget of 15 billion won, or about $11 million, and has been described as an effort to create a major global event comparable in reach to the Coachella festival in the United States.
Bae’s office has questioned why JYP Entertainment was allowed to apply for international trademark rights related to the festival. The lawmaker said the arrangement requires public scrutiny because Park occupies both a prominent private-sector role and a leadership position on the presidential commission overseeing popular-culture exchange.
The commission said Thursday that JYP Entertainment would transfer the international trademark rights to a relevant company after the filing process was completed. It also pointed to a similar process for the domestic Fanomenon trademark. In that case, JYP Entertainment filed the application and later transferred half of the rights to the government.
Bae said the explanation did not resolve why the entertainment company handled the applications in the first place. She urged Park to address concerns about possible preferential treatment and to explain whether the arrangement could create private benefits from a project intended to serve the public interest. The claims have not been established as findings of wrongdoing.
The lawmaker also said she intended to examine Park’s assertion that he has received little or no compensation while chairing the presidential commission. Bae sits on the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, which is responsible for scrutinizing agencies and policies in the sector.
The dispute brings together questions of public spending, intellectual-property ownership and potential conflicts between government service and private business. Park’s requested testimony would give lawmakers an opportunity to clarify who initiated the trademark strategy, how ownership is to be transferred and what safeguards apply to the publicly funded festival. The report did not specify whether Park had agreed to appear.