{"id":151388,"date":"2025-10-30T12:30:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T19:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/?p=151388"},"modified":"2025-10-30T12:30:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T19:30:44","slug":"court-clears-illit-of-copying-newjeans-amid-ongoing-legal-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/court-clears-illit-of-copying-newjeans-amid-ongoing-legal-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Court clears ILLIT of copying NewJeans amid ongoing legal battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Seoul Central District Court<\/strong> has officially ruled that<strong> ILLIT<\/strong> did not copy <strong>NewJeans<\/strong>. During the verdict delivered on October 30th, 2025, Judge Jung Hoe Il of the Civil Division 41 stated that while there may be similarities between both groups, it\u2019s \u201cdifficult to view ILLIT as a replication of NewJeans.\u201d It was explained that a girl group\u2019s concept cannot be protected under intellectual property rights, effectively dismissing NewJeans\u2019 claims of imitation.<\/p>\n<p>It was noted that ADOR, led by <strong>CEO Min Hee Jin at the time<\/strong>, had previously sent an official letter to ILLIT\u2019s agency, Belift Lab, addressing the issue, proving that ADOR did not ignore the matter. In the same ruling, the court announced that NewJeans\u2019 exclusive contracts with ADOR, signed in 2022, remain valid, tying the group to the company until 2029. However, the quintet\u2019s lawyers announced plans to appeal the court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n        <blockquote hcb-fetch-image-from=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PopBase\/status\/1844588091282985148\" class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">During a recent injunction hearing, Min HeeJin provided alleged evidence from a HYBE employee that ILLIT\u2019s creative director requested NewJeans\u2019 planning document and made an identical plan for ILLIT. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jaaw4dwyGL\">pic.twitter.com\/jaaw4dwyGL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Pop Base (@PopBase) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PopBase\/status\/1844588091282985148?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">October 11, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n        <\/figure>\n        \n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This decision marks another chapter in the tense ADOR\u2013NewJeans legal feud, which began in November of last year when NewJeans announced they would terminate their contracts over a \u201cbreakdown of trust\u201d and rebranded as NJZ. The agency quickly acted with a lawsuit in December 2024, blocking the group\u2019s decision to exit the company. This time, the court\u2019s ruling reinforces ADOR\u2019s position, but NewJeans will continue to fight and appeal the decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Seoul Central District Court has officially ruled that ILLIT did not copy NewJeans. During the verdict delivered on October 30th, 2025, Judge Jung Hoe Il of the Civil Division 41 stated that while there may be similarities between both groups, it\u2019s \u201cdifficult to view ILLIT as a replication of NewJeans.\u201d It was explained that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3104,"featured_media":151389,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2264,16],"tags":[3160,1747],"tmauthors":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-151388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-kpop","9":"tag-illit","10":"tag-newjeans"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151388"},{"taxonomy":"tmauthors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tmauthors?post=151388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}