The makgeolli company representative who said, “Young Tak demanded 15 billion won” gets a suspended sentence in prison.

[Seoul Economic Daily]

The CEO of Yecheon Brewing, a makgeolli manufacturer involved in a trademark dispute with singer Young Tak (Park Young Tak, 40), was sentenced to probation on charges of publishing false information. He claimed, “Young Tak demanded 5 billion won per year in modeling fees.”

On the 17th, Judge Kim Seon-sook of the 8th Criminal Division of the Seoul Eastern District Court sentenced Yecheon Brewery CEO Baek Mo, who was indicted on charges of violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection (defamation), to six months in prison and one year of probation. Yecheon Brewing’s Seoul branch manager, Mr. Cho, who was also indicted on charges of defamation and threats, will also receive the same punishment.

Previously, Yecheon Brewing launched and sold Youngtak Makgeolli after signing an advertising model contract with Youngtak in 2020. Yecheon Brewing tried to apply for a trademark for Yeongtak makgeolli, but it was judged impossible because it was the same as Youngtak’s stage name when he was a singer.

Afterwards, discussions were held with Young Tak regarding trademark application and model renewal, but no agreement was reached. In this process, Yecheon Brewing said, “Negotiations broke down because Youngtak demanded a total of 15 billion won in model fees for three years, 5 billion won per year. “I asked them to let me run the dealership for free,” he claimed. Also, in relation to the Yeongtak Makgeolli trademark, he claimed, “I received a call from the Korean Intellectual Property Office asking me to ‘get a handwritten sign of approval for registration from Yeongtak himself in order to register the trademark’ and requested it from Yeongtak’s mother, but shortly afterwards, I secretly applied for the trademark separately from Yecheon Brewing.” did.

In addition, Young Tak’s mother said, “If you don’t wrap the pig’s head in newspaper and bury it, the company will go bankrupt,”and paid the cost of the exorcism, including holding a funeral. After the contract failure and conflict with Young Tak became known, fans organized an organized boycott and some dealers CEO Baek also claimed that the business closed and sales decreased.

It turns out that branch manager Cho had a phone call with Young Tak prior to this, asking, “Do you mind if the breakdown of negotiations is revealed to the media and your image is tarnished?”

The court pointed out that these claims by CEO Baek and others were false. Even though CEO Baek knew that Young Tak had discussed approving ‘use’ rather than ‘registration’ of the trademark, it was determined that they had conducted a false interview as if they had interfered with Yecheon Brewing’s trademark registration. The court also ruled that Young Tak’s mother never forced him to eat a pig’s head, and that there was no organized boycott by fans.

Judge Kim said, “Mr. Baek and others defamed and threatened Yeong-tak’s mother by cleverly mixing facts from trademark negotiations or meetings with false information and announcing it to the media and the public as if there had been abuse of power.” “He suffered considerable mental suffering, including criticism,” the ruling ruled.

In addition, the court determined that the reason why CEO Baek published false information was ‘money.’ Yecheon Brewing had sales of 115.43 million won in 2019, but after signing a model contract with Youngtak, it rapidly increased to 5.01492 billion won the following year. As a result, Yecheon Brewing, which had invested in building a new factory, was in desperate need of a contract extension.

Meanwhile, in July of last year, Youngtak also received a partial ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against Yecheon Brewing to prohibit the use of the Youngtak makgeolli trademark. In addition, all cases in which he was sued by Yecheon Brewing on charges of false accusation, obstruction of business, and defamation were either dismissed or acquitted.

Reporter Kim Tae-won revival@sedaily.com