JYP Filed 11 U.S. “FANOMENON” Trademark Applications During Park Jin-young’s Official U.S. Trip

JYP Entertainment filed 11 U.S. trademark applications for “FANOMENON” during the period of Park Jin-young’s official government-related trip to the United States, according to a September 25 report by Sports Kyunghyang.

The report states that JYP filed the 11 applications on November 14, 2025, with JYP Entertainment Corporation listed as the original applicant. The applications claimed priority from trademarks first filed in South Korea on October 2 and covered a wide range of goods and services, including cosmetics, clothing and footwear, photocards, dolls, light sticks, online retail, broadcasting and streaming, concerts, award ceremonies, and ticketing. Public U.S. trademark records confirm FANOMENON applications by JYP filed on November 14 across multiple categories.

The filing date fell during Park Jin-young’s November 13–18 official U.S. schedule in New York and Los Angeles. According to the report, Park met Republic Records executives Monte Lipman and Avery Lipman on November 14 to discuss topics including a large-scale event, local media strategy, and potential collaboration. At the time, Park was JYP’s founder, Chief Creative Officer, a registered director, and the company’s largest shareholder with a reported 15.37% stake.

The trip had previously drawn scrutiny from the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee over the need to clearly distinguish official government schedules from private or company-related activities. The support team for the presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange responded that Park personally paid expenses related to his private schedule and that travel and administrative procedures were handled according to applicable rules.

Following questions over the FANOMENON trademarks, the Committee on Popular Culture Exchange said JYP had made the initial overseas filings in order to secure the rights quickly and that the overseas trademark rights are intended to be transferred to a dedicated entity responsible for carrying out the project. The committee has also said that, domestically, JYP transferred a 50% share of the trademark rights to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and plans to transfer its remaining share to the dedicated entity.

The U.S. filings remain applications rather than fully registered trademark rights, with some still undergoing examination. FANOMENON is a large-scale K-culture project being developed by the Committee on Popular Culture Exchange and major K-pop agencies, with its first domestic event planned for December 2027.

Netizen Reactions

The sampled comments were strongly divided. Some questioned the optics of JYP holding the initial trademark applications while Park Jin-young was serving in an official government role, while others argued that filing quickly was a normal way to protect the name before transferring the rights as planned. Several comments also became openly political.

1. What kind of nonsense is this? They promoted it everywhere as the Korean version of Coachella, and if the company benefited even slightly through its stock price, then that should be called out. Why are the excuses coming first again? Before talking about quickly securing exclusive rights or whatever, they should’ve prepared everything properly and announced it first. Who reveals something like this first and only explains it afterward? Are they kidding?

2. Sports Kyunghyang is pumping out articles like trash. Do they have some grudge against JYP?

3. They were told to separate the official schedule from the personal one, and then it became known that Park Jin-young even paid for his own return flight, so the National Assembly ended up getting criticized for nitpicking;; This time they just moved quickly in advance and say they’re going to transfer the rights later. Isn’t this seriously forced hate? It’s not like everyone else involved is stupid. Do people really think they were planning to leave it under JYP forever?

4. Hey, he’s working for free. Cut him this much slack ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

5. At the end of the day, entertainment companies are private businesses. It’s the same as people saying Kakao uses Melon to favor idols from its own affiliates. Whenever the government gets involved in entertainment, it inevitably ends up looking like favoritism toward one particular company.

6. With trademark rights, you’re supposed to move quickly and secure them first! JYP is right on this one~~~ Someone else could register it in the meantime.

7. But this is so transparent ㅋㅋㅋ The media is trying so hard to attack the government right now. Really trying. Isn’t the intention just to find something to attack JYP over because of its connection to an organization directly under the Lee Jae-myung administration? This is ridiculous, seriously ㅋㅋㅋ

8. What does filing a trademark application have to do with an official business trip? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Does Park Jin-young personally handle every bit of work for JYP’s U.S. corporation? There are staff members and executives there too ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

9. Now do you “2-jjik” types understand? ㅋㅋ You blockheads ㅋㅋㅋ

10. So does this mean JYP’s stock price is going up by 200 won next Monday because of this?

Source: Nate News