One Hundred “We understand that negotiations for free use of The Boyz‘s trademark have been completed” [Official]

While The Boyz is discussing ‘all transferring’ to One Hundred, One Hundred has declared “We understand that negotiations have been completed” only with a ‘statement’ without any legal procedures.

One Hundred, which is currently discussing contracts with all members of The Boyz, claimed on the 4th that they could not accept IST Entertainment’s unreasonable negotiation conditions during the process of negotiating trademark rights related to The Boyz.

They stated, “Until December 5th, the contract expiration date, One Hundred will do its best in negotiating trademark rights with an open mind, and even if the negotiations fall through, we will thoroughly prepare so that the current members of The Boyz can be active under a better brand name. Lastly, One Hundred said, “We will always do our best as artists and fans.”

IST Entertainment immediately issued a rebuttal. They expressed regret that One Hundred‘s position was false, and refuted the claims, saying, ”Contrary to what has been reported, our company has decided to provide the free usage rights of the trademark to all ‘11 members of The Boyz’, and we have already conveyed this intention to the members.“

They went on to say, “We wanted to allow the free usage of the trademark in any activities (including unit and individual activities) that the 11 members agreed to,” and added that the members with about 6 months left on their exclusive contracts had decided to terminate their contracts early regardless of the term “Out of a desire to “support activities with the new agency.” IST Entertainment emphasized that they had decided to provide the free usage rights of the trademark to the members who are the ‘main body of the team’, not to the ‘new agency’. They denied that the reports that ‘They reportedly demanded an excessive trademark price’ and ‘They made demands that went beyond the normal level to the new company’ are not true, and cheered on The Boyz’s future path.


One Hundred released a second statement on the 5th, once again refuting IST Entertainment‘s claims. They stated, “If IST Entertainment had provided The Boyz with the trademark usage rights free of charge as they claimed in their statement, we would have naturally protected the trademark usage rights that the artist should have had for the duration of their contract with the artist for the sake of the artist and The B members.” “However, two out of the three conditions of the agreement conveyed through IST Entertainment yesterday (the 4th) were unfavorable to the artists, not our company. This is not true regarding IST Entertainment’s statement claiming that they provided the trademark usage rights to the members of The Boyz for free,” they claimed.

One Hundred emphasized, “The conditions written in the agreement were such that the members‘ right to settlement was taken away from IST Entertainment in exchange for providing the trademark usage rights, not the trademark rights for the name ’The Boyz.‘ We would like to emphasize once again that this was by no means provided for free.”

They stated, “Through IST Entertainment’s statement yesterday, the artists acknowledged that they were allowed to use the trademark usage rights without any negotiation conditions for the smooth activities of The Boyz and for The B members. Accordingly, we at One Hundred also raised our voices, saying, “We will acknowledge that the negotiations for the free use of the trademark between IST Entertainment and the artist have been completed.”



One Hundred’s 2nd statement regarding The Boyz’s trademark

This is One Hundred.

After our statement, IST Entertainment, an affiliate of Kakao Entertainment, released a statement saying that they gave the members the right to use The Boyz’s trademark for free, but this is not true.

If IST Entertainment had provided The Boyz with the right to use the trademark for free as they claimed in their statement, we would have protected the trademark use rights that the artist should have during the contract period for the sake of the artist and The B members.

However, the agreement that was conveyed through IST Entertainment yesterday (the 4th) Two out of the three conditions were disadvantageous to the artists, not to our company.

This does not match the statement of claim that IST Entertainment provided the trademark usage rights to the members of The Boyz free of charge.

The conditions written in the agreement were that the trademark usage rights, not the trademark rights for the name ‘The Boyz’, were provided while taking away the settlement rights that the members should naturally have from IST Entertainment. Let me emphasize once again that this was by no means provided for free.

Through IST Entertainment‘s statement yesterday, the artists were made aware that they were allowed to use the trademark without any negotiation conditions for The Boyz’s smooth promotions and for The B members.

Therefore, we at One Hundred would also like to acknowledge that the negotiations for the free use of the trademark have been completed between IST Entertainment and the artists.

Lastly, we at One Hundred would like to sincerely apologize for causing concern and worry to The B members due to the unpleasant incidents that occurred even before The Boyz members transferred agencies.

One Hundred will continue to work hard so that we can only do happy activities for the artists and fans. Thank you for taking the time to read the long text.

Jung Hee-yeon, Donga.com Reporter shine2562@donga.com