Following reports of members leaving, Source Music is revealed to have registered G-FRIEND's name as a trademark at the Korean Intellectual Property Office. So, what will the fate of the members be like in the future?
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| Instagram / gfriendofficial |
G-FRIEND or GFRIEND members decided not to renew their contract with their agency, Source Music. Following the report, it was revealed that Source Music had submitted the name "GFRIEND" in both English and Korean to become a trademark at the Korean Intellectual Property Office.
Based on the official website of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, Source Music applied for the trademark "여자 친구" (girlfriend in Korean) on January 23, 2015 and officially registered on November 3, 2015. Meanwhile, the name "GFRIEND" was only filed on March 11, 2021 and has not yet. registered to date.
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| Source: Kpopstarz |
With this filing, attention has turned to how this patent right will affect the future of G-FRIEND members. Because if Source Music manages to get the patent rights on that name, Yuju cs will no longer be able to promote as G-FRIEND. They have to choose another name if they want to unite as a group.
A similar problem has occurred at HIGHLIGHT who previously promoted as BEAST. Because Cube Entertainment holds the BEAST trademark, the members have to re-debut under a new name.
Apart from trademark registration, Source Music has also removed all scheduled content from G-FRIEND since Monday (17/5). Previously, G-FRIEND was scheduled to upload a "special clip" video on its official YouTube channel on Tuesday (18/5) today, and the content for "G-POST" is planned to be released on Wednesday (19/5) on their official Naver channel.
With such sudden news, fans were very surprised because there was no indication that the group would be disbanded. In addition, fans were also disappointed because Source Music decided to delete the scheduled content of the 6-member group.
Meanwhile, G-FRIEND debuted in January 2015 by releasing a mini album titled "Season of Glass". Since then, the group has released many hit songs such as "Me Gustas Tu", "MAGO", "Glass Bead", "Rough", "Navillera" and many more. G-FRIEND's latest album is the third regular album titled "Walpurgis Night" which was released in November 2020. (wk / eval)
