Korean nail company withdraws trademark application over BTS’ term, "Borahae”
28 June 2021
Image credits: Film Daily
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.
“Borahae” or “I Purple You” is a term coined by a BTS member, V, during a fan meeting back in 2016. The term was first used when he said it to describe the last colour of the rainbow - purple - which means to trust and love each other until the end. Since then, “Borahae” held significant meaning and has been widely used between BTS and ARMY (BTS’ biggest fandom) as a way to show their affection and support for each other.
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.
Local media revealed that it was the chief executive officer’s decision to apply and other employees had no knowledge of it.
ARMY was upset with fact that “Borahae” was being applied for trademark by a company not related to HYBE, as it could pose possible brand infringement and impact future term and phrase usage. Therefore, ARMY informed HYBE the application and pushed for more action.
On May 31, 2021, LALALEES announced on its website that it had withdrawn the controversial application and deeply apologized for taking the word.
“So, the game is already over seemingly,” says Yungjoon Kwon, managing partner at KWON & KIM Patent & Trademark Attorneys in Seoul. “Even if LALALEES wished to keep the application, there would be less chance for it to win since KIPO has now set a higher than ever standard for bad faith marks, especially for such unique and newly coined word mark - more especially ones originating from famous entertainers.”
Johnny Chan
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