Park Seo Joon's Agency Clarifies Lawsuit Against Restaurant For Unauthorized Image Usage
Park Seo Joon’s agency has made clarifications regarding his recent lawsuit.
On July 3, a media outlet reported on the results of the lawsuit between Park Seo Joon and restaurant owner “A.” In Park Seo Joon’s hit 2018 drama “What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim,” the actor filmed a scene where he eats ganjang gejang (soy sauce marinated crab). “A,” who lent the restaurant location, continued to use Park Seo Joon’s photo and name without agreement for promotional purposes and also ran Naver (Korean search portal) search advertisements. Park Seo Joon filed a lawsuit upon belatedly finding out.
Although the media outlet reported that Park Seo Joon claimed 6 billion won (approximately $4.4 million) in compensation, Park Seo Joon’s agency clarified that this was only the amount they claimed to have been lost, calculated by multiplying a typical annual advertisement fee of 1 billion won (approximately $736,000) by six years.
Park Seo Joon’s agency awesome.ent clarified, “We requested [the promotional materials] to be taken down several times since 2019, and they would delete the portal site search advertisements and put away the banner, but they would just put them back up and not respond to the requests to stop. Theses malicious acts continued, which is why the lawsuit began.” They continued, “Although the estimated damage amounts to 6 billion won considering the advertising model fee, we took into consideration the size of the defendant’s business and all the circumstances, and the actual amount claimed in the lawsuit was 60 million won (approximately $44,200).”
The agency further shared, “We have confirmed that secondary harm through malicious ridicule and defamation continue even after a rightful court ruling. We will respond without leniency or settlement to any acts that infringe on our artist’s publicity and personal rights.”
The court ruled partially in favor of Park Seo Joon, recognizing 5 million won (approximately $3,700) in damages.
