The court ruled in favor of ADOR in the damages lawsuit with Dolphiners Film.
On the afternoon of the 13th, the Civil Division 62 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Lee Hyun Seok) held the verdict hearing for ADOR’s lawsuit seeking damages amounting to ₩1.10 billion KRW (about $750,000 USD) against Dolphiners Film and director Shin Woo Seok.
The court ordered Dolphiners Film to pay ADOR ₩1.00 billion KRW (about $681,000 USD) plus 12% annual late interest.
Additionally, the court ruled that the plaintiff will bear the portion of litigation costs arising between the plaintiff and defendant Shin Woo Seok, while regarding the costs between the plaintiff and defendant Dolphiners Film, the plaintiff will bear 1/11 and the defendant company will bear the remainder.
Last August, director Shin Woo Seok of Dolphiners Film stated, “With the management change at ADOR, it seems the policies have changed. Due to ADOR’s request for deletion, all NewJeans music videos and related videos and channels that Dolphiners Film had worked on and uploaded, as well as videos planned for future upload, can no longer be made public.”
In response, ADOR emphasized, “The ‘ETA’ music video director’s cut posted on Dolphiners Film’s own SNS channel included edits that had previously been contentious even with advertisers, and was posted without advertiser approval. Furthermore, according to the contract between ADOR and Dolphiners Film, the copyrights of NewJeans’ music videos and all related works belong to ADOR. Therefore, the ‘ETA’ music video and its edited versions (including the director’s cut) should be posted only on our official channels.” ADOR also stated, “This is to protect the rights of the artists.”
However, the conflict between the two companies ultimately escalated into a legal battle. Both sides had shown starkly opposed stances through four prior trial sessions.