Even if she is still bound by the old contract, no way is that non-compete enforceable. Its far too wide, no court would ever accept it as is. I'm shocked their legal team even drafted it knowing it'd be rendered useless the moment she went to court.
If your in doubt, just look at LSM. He is under the same non-compete yet he has trainees he's preparing to debut.
Fireworks really about to start now so strap in. MHJ resigned and is releasing news about her lawsuits, which means team bunnies are about to do the same with all the evidence they have collected 
MHJ is about to take them to the cleaners and the courts will deffo be on her side because in the 7 months since Hybe started all this, even getting the police involved, they haven't found anything useful to fire her and all this mess is great evidence for constructive dismissal on top of the share stuff. I wonder if by the end of this if she'll even need investors for her new company, she'll probs be able to self fund with the payday thats coming. 
Team bunnies really not playing around with belift.
Hello, this is Tim Bernies.
On the 15th, Belief Lab CEO Kim Tae-ho stated in an interview with a media outlet that Belief Lab’s parent group’s plan and New Jeans’ plan are “completely different,” and that additional lawsuits will be filed. We express deep regret for the attitude of Belief Lab’s management, who, despite clearly stating that we have the plan in full and the transcript, are not admitting their wrongdoing but instead abusing their power to file lawsuits.
Rather than causing unnecessary fatigue by disclosing the information in our possession to an unspecified number of people, we have decided that it would be better to clearly distinguish right from wrong in court. Accordingly, Team Burnies is preparing to file a criminal complaint with a law firm against several of the confirmed allegations against Belief Lab CEO Kim Tae-ho (COO of HYBE), Visual Director Heo ○○, and Performance Director Myeong ○○, and we would like to inform you that we will be filing it soon. We ask for your understanding that this article is somewhat long as many of CEO Kim Tae-ho’s claims are untrue.
First, in the interview, CEO Kim Tae-ho admitted that he received the plan for New Jeans on August 29, 2023, before the debut of the group. This clearly contradicts the initial position of Belief Lab in its explanatory video last June, which said, “There was absolutely no trace of New Jeans being mentioned or referenced in any system, including the cloud, laptop, mail, or internal messenger.” Despite being independent entities, Belief Lab and Adore have admitted that they received the plan for another label, which was first written three years ago, through some means, without the consent of the label in question.
The root cause of the suspicion of plagiarism between Belief Lab and Adore lies in Hive's system, which cannot self-correct. It is still unclear how Adore's internal data and intellectual property, the 'New Jeans Plan', was delivered to Belief Lab through Hive. However, the fact that Belief Lab received the data without due process is a serious illegal act and a violation of work ethics, and if it had been referenced or plagiarized without consent, it would have been an even more serious illegal act. CEO Kim Tae-ho should have explained the circumstances and reason why Belief Lab received the New Jeans Plan, but he has not said a word about it.
In addition, in the interview, CEO Kim Tae-ho mentioned the contents of the October injunction lawsuit between former CEO Min Hee-jin and HYBE, which he, as the CEO of Belief Lab, was unable to access. The injunction in question is a case unrelated to Belief Lab, and the fact that CEO Kim Tae-ho was able to access the related contents is questionable. This may not be unrelated to the fact that CEO Kim Tae-ho also serves as COO of HYBE. The plagiarism allegations are a separate issue from the injunction case between HYBE and former CEO Min Hee-jin. During the interview to explain the plagiarism allegations, CEO Kim Tae-ho seemed confused as to whether he was speaking as the CEO of Belief Lab or as the COO of HYBE, and he seemed to have neither the will nor the ability to clearly distinguish between the two.
According to several press releases, the PPT materials submitted to the court during the injunction hearing were confirmed to contain the whistleblower's revelations as evidence of Hive's unfair treatment of New Jeans. And this PPT material was submitted to the court as evidence. However, CEO Kim Tae-ho admitted in an interview that he had viewed materials that he was not authorized to view, and at the same time, he falsely claimed that the materials submitted to the court were not submitted, which is once again distorting the facts.
The only victims of this alleged plagiarism are New Jeans and the producers and creators who participated in the New Jeans project. Hive has spread false information through the media, causing internal obstruction, schedule delays, and cancellations. This is an undeniable fact, and neither the CEO of Belief Lab, who caused the problem, nor the COO of Hive are taking any responsibility for this, but are instead repeating the logic of the perpetrator, who is like a hypocrite, shifting the responsibility to the victims.
In an interview, CEO Kim Tae-ho claimed that former CEO Min Hee-jin was intentionally delaying the lawsuit, and has been spreading this information as if it were true through other media outlets several times up until today. Hive, Source Music, and Belift Lab are indiscriminately filing about 10 lawsuits against individuals at the company's expense, and in this situation, asking individuals who are suffering mental and financial damage from the lawsuits to faithfully cooperate with the investigation is an abuse of power that can only be found in the political world. Please recognize that it is you who are committing this unjust act.
Last April, former Adore CEO Min Hee-jin sent an email to executives as Adore CEO, requesting an explanation of the plagiarism suspicions, discrimination, and Hybe’s misconduct in order to protect the values of New Jeans. However, what she received was an emergency illegal audit. In the process, she continued to distort the facts through colluding media outlets, turned the issues raised against her into forced controversies, and continued biased smear campaigns by bringing up unrelated incidents.
The illegal marketing practice of 'reverse viral', which surfaced through the so-called weekly music industry report, is a typical example of Hive's media play. Without verifying the facts, Hive's false claims are spread to media outlets and communities in a short period of time, and the distorted reporting that arouses emotions by even putting forward their own artists to answer questions that they themselves should answer, and the act of spreading false information overseas by mobilizing unverified overseas tow truck companies should no longer be tolerated.
We will guide you through the progress of the accusation procedure as soon as possible. In addition, we would like to inform you that the first accusation against Dispatch, Source Music, and Hive, which is in progress, and the second accusation against Kim Joo-young, Lee Do-kyung, Park Tae-hee, and Jo Sung-hoon were merged on the 15th and are currently under investigation. Thank you.
- Phil Law Firm/Opes Law Firm/Neuro Law Firm/Saeol Law Firm
No matter what its going to go platinum in my bedroom 
Display Morenever claimed to not love attention, feeds my soul tbh.
Okay maybe youre right that this was the point of him saying those vague words, but hes still a liar and still forced Hannis hand into ushering in the wave of hate and hes still manipulating the girls in Illit to be the punching bag by putting words into their mouths.
Its not unreasonable to believe he meant that, its unreasonable to agree with him and believe him.
And the fact still stands that Daisy was using a direct quote with no interpretation and you were using the inferences that he wanted. Hes employing a classic bullying technique and you are eating it up
Just typical Hybe - only thing they learnt in all these years is to make fans believe the criticising the company and management is the same as criticising the idol. Interesting that only fans of certain groups who debuted under Hybe seem to do this whilst the rest of the industry seem to know that fans hating the companies the idols are under does give them a level of protection from company issues.
The issue is who is bringing this up and how he is bringing it up. From the very first time we saw this issue drop, not once have we seen belift act in the best interest of illit, hell they never act in the best interest of enhypen in the years since their debut. From showing members negative articles about them whilst at fan meetings, to continuing the make a mess during their CB times to using them for media play and diverting attention to them instead of the manager and now this statement. All he needed to say was the companies issues have nothing to do with the group and the manager thing will be handled internally. All the focus should have been on the manager issue, especially as Hanni never said anything negative about the idol involved. They didn't need to say whose manager it was, even if they wanted to admit it was illits manager, all they needed to say is the manager was in the wrong or they have been moved from managing illit whilst they investigate internally and will do internal training.
Belift only ever focus on the damage to illit members when they want sympathy because they have no other defence and its not only tiring to passersby, desensitizes people to the emotional damage done to illit but also devalues the members. Why are their feelings being used to protect the company from valid criticism? Its not only unprofessional but just weird and after a certain point people just won't believe anything about their struggles or worse, will be harsher on them because they think anything about their struggles is a media play. I feel like its a weird impact of Hybe and their use of armies. They are so used to using the feelings of BTS to make armies act to protect the company that they think it will work with all groups.
Also think about the timing, illit is currently promoting, if they wanted to admit it was a tough time, the company could allow them to vaguely mention it in an interview and say its difficult because of the circumstances for everyone involved. Would have gotten them wide praise for being stuck in a tough situation, but they didn't. Instead they are speaking on their behalf and moving the focus from their CB to what their view is in this mess, them clearly being on the side of the manager, as well as using them as witnesses to back up that the everything was fine with the recording so ignore that the significant part was deleted and hanni has a copy of the incident. And clearly the only reason to say it like that is to weaponise their fans to protect the company.
What's everyone's opinion on MHJ dodging the court proceedings for their alleged plagiarism claims? I didn't see anyone really comment on it and was curious
Kind of dumb of belift but I get why they'd do it but this is clearly not going anywhere and is just a threat for show. They are getting crucified and nothing they try when it comes to media play is working. In kpop the 'denial' is normally promises of lawsuits so the public think there must not be anything to it which is why they are going to court, problem is this has gone far beyond that and more proof is coming up each day so ofc no-one believes them but their shooters, honestly I doubt they will actually make it to court because that'd be a dumb move from belift (but then again when haven't they been dumb). I feel like they are making the case now because MHJ is no longer in charge of Ador, and as the legal owner of newjeans IP, its Adors job to launch any such claims. They are trying to get this settled in court before any case of newjeans leaving Hybe/Ador in hopes the court will side with them and they can media play that to death. Thing is, they are filing for interference with business and defamation, but she was far from the first to make such claims and her trying to settle it in private whilst doing her director duty is all going to help her immensely. Not to mention all the proof docs are coming from whistleblowers, which are legally protected and for interference with business you need to show use of unlawful means, intention to injure and actual damages which is gonna be hard when she has tried to settle it internally, made statements trying to protect the illit members, pointed out what was obvious to literally everyone from the moment illit debuted (to the point that articles from actual journalists were mistaking them) and how do you show lost potentially from a group from an unpopular show who had plagiarism claims since debut. Not like they can say they would have been the next newjeans or izone.
MHJ and team bunnies don't seem to see this lawsuit as attention worthy right now, their main focus is getting newjeans out of Hybe or getting MHJ back in charge, pointing out the plagiarism was just a means to an end and they've already started moves towards their endgame. Even if the case gets a court date quickly, its likely going to be postponed because of all the other MHJ suits as the cases are interconnected. Even then, its unlikely to really get a footing because she made the initial claims as head of Ador, when it was legally her job to do so.
As for the defamation...well there are two branches, defamation publicly of facts and defamation publicly of false facts. So they'd need to first prove they didn't plagiarise or end up proving that not only did they plagiarise and open themselves up to claims based on that, but paid to admit they plagiarised.
Honestly it very hard to say, but I honestly think it likely depends more on business sense/what the brands are willing to risk than contracts. We've seen brand deals that seem to continue after an idol leaves a company (like Hyuna with YSL), but since they are considered contractors and the agency who negotiate on their behalf, it makes sense something would be built in for situations where idols try to leave especially if they are early into their contracts and the company was the main reason they got said deal.
There will always be failsafes built in that allow the brands to cancel the contracts as they like (as we saw with Irene and Soojin etc), so the brand may weigh up which is more important and the history of their connection with the agency. If they have a long history and relationship, they may focus on that (like pepsi and their continuous deals with starship), in this case, multiple brands they have worked with only seem to have approached to work with newjeans and have exclusively dealt with MHJ's team, especially ones like apple. Hybe would have to show there are significant benefits of the brands dropping newjeans for some other Hybe group, and since Ador has literally no other groups, Hybe has BTS but no history of being able to make a group as successful as BTS or newjeans so unless they can offer deals BTS (and considering they are currently in military service and they are focusing on solo deals thats unlikely) I doubt the majority of the brands will side with Hybe given the current situation and they'll likely prefer to follow newjeans for MHJ's history of successful groups alone.
K-tokkies said they have more than enough funds for now when I-tokkies, J-tokkies and C-tokkies offered but they'll likely send donation links if they need more.
Depends on the case, but with Hybe’s influence and money, they’ll just drag it out just to kill Njs’ hype. For Chuu, it took her 1 year and 8 months to end things with BBC, while the other members took only about 7-8 months. Tvxq members had to wait almost 3 years before finally reaching a mutual decision outside court with SM to terminate their contract. Omega X managed to settle it in around 2-3 months because their case were too severe to ignore. Honestly, no one can say for sure, but big companies have the money to bribing the court and covering all the continuous lawsuit costs, like Hybe’s doing with MHJ now. Seeing how no idols ever won against SM as far as I know in court and it's always end through settlement, this will not going to be a quick process for Nj too.
Considering the amount of international attention this is getting (legit got financial times articles), I have no doubt the gov want this sorted yesterday and they have long weighed up which is going to make a worst impression.
Display MoreExactly. If HYBE want to deal with this fast, they will disband them, if they want to drag it out and meanwhile don't give any song to NJ they will do it. They can literally do whatever they want, and no one will stop them. That's the sad reality!
I don't know what law are you talking about, but every name rights are in the hands of the companies! I'm pretty sure that didn't change, and never gonna change, because that would be really bad for every company, not just HYBE!
Most Kpop groups sign a 5 year long contract, at least! They can't just leave, if they wanna leave, they have to pay for it!
If those documents could help NewJeans, they would've done it already.
Law changed a couple years ago, if all the members of the group left the company, they can apply to have the trademarks registered under their own names. If the company has made 'significant contributions' to the development of the name they can demand a fair price. Ikon and Got7 used this law to get their name. Its one of the reasons Source failed to copyright Gfriend, why it was so important that Keena went back to attrakt and why T-ara got their name. Only reason Brave girls didn't bother to try and get theirs is they weren't the original or only Brave girls and the company established they would replace members regularly.
Not a coincidence that they suddenly managed to re-sign 2ne1, sent them on tour and have dropped merch immediately - even a new lightstick and merch collabs. 2ne1 likely agreed because they want their name and after this contract is up, they'd be covered under the new law and would get it without a fuss.
I have no doubt they are going to, but this is just another way to add to their case, they want an iron clad case so they need to show they gave Hybe and ador many chances to correct the issues. This case could be landmark for all idols. Considering Loona only got out due to income splits, JYJ due to slave terms and the 5050 mess gave companies more power, they need to do all they can to show they are the reasonable party and its all Hybe/Adors fault the relationship broke down.
I've heard of obstruction of official business, but not simply obstruction of business. Can this law be applied to employees? Because it's not like NJ run their own business. Likewise, IP infringement definitely isn't an avenue they can go down, as they don't own the NJ IP, Hybe does. What would their case for defamation be?
But remember Newjeans aren't considered employees, and thats coming from the new Ador CEO, she said it during that gov inquest meeting. They are contractors, so if they can show Ador has been limiting their ability to work, dismissing opportunities etc since they got rid of MHJ, they can prove it easily. Especially if you include the plagiarism as a way to obstruct future earnings and the arguments and oncoming lawsuit from those who have long worked with newjeans because of the new Ador CEO.
Would also add thanks to that new law a couple years before they debuted, if all the members leave, they get the rights to their name and all their IP including music. Yeah they'd likely have to buy it, but considering the situation I think they'd go to court to get a judge to name a fair price.
Since you don't know much about big bang, don't set up BP like this. Taeyang with Eyes, nose and lips alone cleared all their solo's to date, unquestionably, nevermind the monster that is GD.
All they've done since leaving is drop singles, no album or touring has dropped yet etc so your really setting them up for a wacking. TOP's acting career was and is far better than Jisoo's and Jennies (though both have barely gotten started), Daesung was huge in variety shows and none of BP have come close to him there or even in any of his Japanese tours.
so HYBE operates like a nugu label and essentially levies trainee debt.
The training debt for newjeans was paid off right after they debuted, so it sounds more like they make the sublabels use Hybe and BH for pretty much everything and overcharging them for it. I did hear that the 'free' food in their canteen was only free for Hybe and BH employees, everyone else has to pay (including idols) and they get overcharged for it.
Like if creating x amount of albums should cost 5 Hybe is making the sublabels pay them 20 (hence the difference between the amount paid and the internal transaction revenue) and the amount they overcharge by depends on how successful the group is and how much they like them.
I mean we know exactly where that money is going and having BTS back isn't going to help. They are wasting huge amounts of money with that game company stupidness, fighting with MHJ by buying off the media and trying to hide their mess.
Advertising expenses Q1 were 800k won, Q2 were 1million won
Entertainment expenses went from Q1 900k to 4.6 million Q2
Advertising expense increased by 37.26% compared to last year
Entertainment expense increased by 276.45% compared to last year
There was an incident last year where Eunchae accidentally slipped up, revealing that she knew Aespa's comeback would be in November, even though it hadn’t been announced and still a secret. THE AESPA GIRLS DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THAT LOL! She looked panicked, and to cover it up, they claimed that the broadcasting station must have known about it. However, since it was only September at the time, it look sus ngl. With the recent reports being exposed, well we finally know that Hybe just that obsessed with Sm especially Aespa that they know everything about them in advance.
What I don't understand is, if the company knew Aespa's comeback date, why would Hybe still send Illit to compete against them? Illit’s comeback was announced right after Aespa's on the same freaking day, and 'coincidentally', both groups have the same comeback date too. If this doesn’t prove how obsessed Hybe is with Sm, I don't know what does. It feels like Hybe deliberately put Illit against Aespa, thinking they could overshadow Aespa, and winning against Sm. Magnetic is such a successful song this year, but I don't know if that could have clouded their judgment that much.
Considering Bang Pd asked Mhj using Nj to step on Aespa before, it now seems like he’s trying the same with Illit. Poor girls.
Simply its for attention. There were so many articles coming out comparing the two, Hybe is trying to ride on Aespa's coat tails and use media play to say their song is better because it has a grammy producer on it.
Remember how much they pushed the nile rodgers feat in unforgiven? And that dropped the day before Aespa dropped the pre-release welcome to my world.
They want to push endless articles to stop any attention going to aespa and their excuse is their artists also dropped music.
Turns out MHJ isn't even the first one bighit has done this to. And what do you know, they are also a woman. Apparently min is at minimum the third woman they've done this to.
First one was give stock options, was integral to the success of the company (she was the one who made inroads in the US including signing with a US ad company for them and was legit doing everything internally), then they started forcing her to resign, she eventually did and came to realise they forced her out for her stock options which later made everyone else very rich.
