This image, provided by YG Entertainment, shows a metaverse space for fan, “the SamE,” launched by the South Korean entertainment powerhouse.
DAEJEON, April 19 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s talent management agencies are actively exploring new business opportunities, with the number of their trademark applications in new business areas including metaverse, rising at a rapid pace.
The Korea Intellectual Property Office analyzed the trend of trademark applications by the nation’s major music labels and talent agencies over the past decade.
The analysis showed that the number of trademark applications filed by these companies in new business areas, including metaverse, grew by 14 percent per year on average from 2012 to 2021.
Backed by the expansion of convergence-type content combining state-of-the-art technology with K-pop, the number of trademark applications related to digital sound sources, augmented reality (AR)-virtual reality (VR) and drones rose by 3 percent per year during the same period.
The number of trademark applications in such areas stood at 934 cases in the past five years (2017 to 2021), about double the 515 cases recorded during the period from 2012 to 2016.
The number of trademark applications in the areas of digital broadcasting and social media rose by 25 percent per year during the past 10 years, including 240 cases in the 2017 to 2021 period, more than triple the 65 cases recorded during the period from 2012 to 2016.
This reflects the entertainment industry’s business strategy to expand concert and fan communities through virtual spaces such as metaverse and social media.
Over the past ten years, the number of trademark applications filed by the major talent management agencies for online stores rose by 48 percent per year, including 203 cases during the 2017 to 2021 period, up almost 300 percent from the 56 cases recorded during the period from 2012 to 2016.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
