What\u2019s in a name? Plenty if you\u2019re a Seattle band whose name is similar to K-pop Demon Hunters. <\/p>\n
Hyde Lane, the parent company of the band \u201cDemon Hunter,\u201d is suing Netflix over the K-pop movie and its planned concert tour. <\/p>\n
The lawsuit claims Netflix is harming the band\u2019s brand, so it\u2019s suing for trademark infringement. <\/p>\n
\u201cTrademark infringement comes down to if you think of brands, the chance that a consumer is going to be confused,\u201d said Seattle University School law professor Steve Tapia.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to imagine two different styles. Demon Hunter is a Christian metal band founded in Seattle in 2000. The K-pop Demon Hunters film premiered on Netflix in June of 2025, and features versions of pop music.<\/p>\n
But the lawsuit has caused confusion.<\/p>\n
According to the lawsuit, \u201cHyde Lane received an email requesting a ticket refund based on that person purchasing tickets to a Demon Hunter concert after being confused and thinking that they were purchasing tickets to a K-pop Demon Hunter concert.\u201d<\/p>\n
In another incident, the lawsuit states, \u201ca producer from the television show Inside Edition emailed Ryan J. Downey, the manager of Demon Hunter, to request an interview with \u201csongwriter Yu-Han Lee\u201d to \u201cspeak with him about winning the prestigious [Oscar] award.\u201d But Yu-Han Lee wrote the Oscar-winning song for K-pop Demon Hunters, not Demon Hunter.<\/p>\n
\u201cDemon Hunter\u2019s a very niche, small band and Pop Demon Hunters is like one of the biggest pop culture phenomena in the last couple years,\u201d noted Matt Welles, a manager at Sonic Boom Records in Ballard. <\/p>\n
Tapia says the goal of the lawsuit is likely to straighten out that confusion and clarify the brand. He says the solution may be as simple as a \u201cdisclaimer\u201d by the K-Pop group that it has nothing to do with the Christian heavy metal band.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, for example, there are lots of people that do Windows. For houses and such like that. And in a couple of cases where it\u2019s been relatively close, they\u2019ve been forced to disclaim that they have no association with Microsoft,\u201d Tapia said.<\/p>\n
In a statement to KIRO 7, Netflix said: \u201cThese allegations are without merit. Netflix has created an Academy Award-winning global phenomenon with KPop Demon Hunters that has inspired fans around the world with its powerful music, storytelling, and characters. We look forward to vigorously defending this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barring a settlement, the case is headed to trial. \u201cAnd you know if it works it works. But if it doesn\u2019t- way more people will know about Demon Hunter than they did a week ago,\u201d Welles said.<\/p>\n
\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s in a name? Plenty if you\u2019re a Seattle band whose name is similar to K-pop Demon Hunters.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[52955,63896,51299,65692,65689,65691,65695,65694,25886,195,16236,65697,65690,3880,1286,154,12160,65693,2921,6210,65699,65696,65698,2923],"class_list":["post-128511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-52955","tag-cairo","tag-christian","tag-demon_hunter","tag-demon_hunters","tag-gary_horker","tag-heather","tag-heather_bosch","tag-k","tag-k-pop","tag-local","tag-matt_wells","tag-mel_thomas","tag-microsoft","tag-netflix","tag-news","tag-oscar","tag-paris_evan","tag-pop","tag-seattle","tag-seattle_university_school_of_law","tag-sonic_records","tag-steve_tapia","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}