JYP's Park Jin-young faces parliamentary audit summons over Phenomenon festival trademark dispute

Park Jin-young called to parliament over trademark filings

On September 25, People Power Party Rep. Bae Hyun-jin announced she would summon Park Jin-young to a parliamentary audit. The target: JYP Entertainment's trademark applications for Phenomenon (패노메논/FANOMENON), a government-backed global K-pop festival set for December 2027.

Park serves as co-chairman of the Presidential Committee for Public Culture Exchange. He also holds a ministerial-level appointment alongside Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hee-young. Bae's argument is straightforward: that role exists for public interest. Solo trademark filings by his company don't fit that mandate.

What JYP filed — and what the committee says

JYP Entertainment filed the initial domestic trademark application for Phenomenon, then transferred 50% of domestic rights to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The filing became joint-owned. Overseas, JYP filed sole applications separately. The Presidential Committee for Public Culture Exchange said the priority filings were made "to quickly secure and preempt the Phenomenon brand rights" right after the launch ceremony. Overseas rights would transfer to a dedicated event corporation later.

Bae rejected the explanation.

"It is unclear why they did it that way in the first place, and whether they even reviewed when and if that is correct."

She also raised the question of overseas business trips funded by public money. The public "has never tolerated cases of going on overseas business trips with national funds and conducting private business."

The festival itself

Phenomenon is co-promoted by the Presidential Committee and Korea's four major agencies: JYP, HYBE, SM, and YG. The goal is a global K-pop festival and awards ceremony (comparisons to the "Korean Coachella" have circulated). The event runs December 2–12, 2027 across Seoul Arena in Changdong and KINTEX Hall 2 in Ilsan. It includes concerts, an awards ceremony, a music festival, and K-culture company exhibitions. The Korea Culture and Tourism Research Institute projects 200,000 overseas tourists and roughly 1 trillion won in economic impact.

Park shaped the event's framework from the planning stage. JYP remains the key private partner agency.

Bae ended her statement with a personal note: she's a fan of several JYP artists. Then came the closer: "Whether it is favoritism or a den of chaos, you must explain directly to the people. We hate 'unfairness' the most." A self-disclosure that lands differently when you're the one writing the summons.