Interview with Asia IP law: Korean nail company withdraws trademark application over BTS’ term, 'Borahae'

 On June 4, 2021, HYBE, BTS’ agency, applied for trademark over the term “Borahae” with the Korean Intellectual Property Office, as a response to the recent controversy over trademark preemption by LALALEES.

 HYBE states that there have been continuous attempts to obtain the trademarks associated with HYBE and its artists, and they have recognized it as a serious problem. “Hence, we are doing our best to secure the rights to prevent businesses in the future from owning or possessing terms that are related to our artists. The application for trademark rights over ‘Borahae’ was also a part of this.”

 While “Borahae” was used in various marketing and product designs before, it had never been used as a trademark to indicate the brand of a product, so HYPE had never applied for trademark over it until recently.​

 Yet, the Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service initially stated that LALALEES had actually applied for trademark over “Borahae” on September 1, 2020 under the classification of soaps, essential oils, fragrances, cosmetics, hair products, polishes and cleaning agents.

 On May 31, 2021, LALALEES announced on its website that it had withdrawn the controversial application and deeply apologized for taking the word.