Okay, so as mentioned before, B.A.P have effectively reunited (sans Zelo in the military) as BANG&JUNG&YOO&MOON (a straightforward but also insane name to choose). They recently marked this with a sentimental comeback in “Gone”.
Great to see them back and hope they keep at it so we can get something more than like a safe fansong type of deal, though it’s pleasant enough for fans to enjoy at least.
Anyway, the reason they can’t use B.A.P is apparently TS Entertainment, who are somehow still around and still being assholes despite losing basically every case from every artist they’ve had. The members explained not being able to use the B.A.P title, “It would have been great if we could have used our original team name, but the reality is that it is difficult. We wondered if we should create a new team name, but since we promoted with the old team name for so long, coming out with a new name was just… The fans remember us as B.A.P. If we can’t use that name, then the right thing to do was to use our given names to meet our fans again.”
Fair enough, makes sense despite driving me personally insane. But TSE apparently got wind of this and replied,
A representative of TS Entertainment told StarNews on August 9 KST, “Other groups who left their old agencies set up their own agency specifically for group promotions, then sought to talk matters over with their old agencies. But none of the B.A.P members ever sought to talk it over with the late CEO. The six members never contacted us saying that they wanted the trademark.”
In fact, the trademark registration for the group name ‘B.A.P’ expired last month, according to TS. And the agency intends on renewing the registration soon. “Currently, all of the members are under different agencies, and it’s not like they have all 6 members either. It doesn’t seem like they want to claim ownership of the trademark so they can make money. So to act like victims and make it look like we refused to let them use the name, that’s poor judgement,” the rep added.
Dude, what? By all accounts TSE is now defunct (almost four years ago) and the CEO who brought them up passed away six years ago, which was before they even officially disbanded (aside from the fact that things were more contentious at the time).
I know they literally have nothing to lose anymore, but this is just unbelievably petty and pointless. TS basically wanted them to come to them crawling, while the fact that they are renewing it anyway ironically shows their hand of how they would’ve treated them. They are just remarkably bad.
As far as I can tell, every group TS Entertainment has produced has sued them, which is impressive in its own way.
— (@asianjunkiecom) November 18, 2019
