KUALA LUMPUR: It seems that just like fans who can't get enough of popular K-Pop giant BTS, South Korean entertainment company Big Hit, which manages the 7-member music outfit, also wants to get as much from its cash cow.
In a news report from Soompi yesterday, Big Hit had apparently put in an application to secure trademark rights for the name BTS, as well as Army, according to the Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS).
Army is the moniker used to identify the group's legion of worldwide fans.
Big Hit had also responded to the matter in a statement that read: “It is true that we are actively securing trademark rights related to us.”
Apparently, the entertainment company had already registered Bangtan and Bangan Boyz back in 2012 before BTS had made its debut.
BTS was added to the registry as the music outfit had been widely identified by that particular name, not only in the Asian region, but in South America and Europe as well.
Although it's not uncommon for popular K-Pop and idol group names to be registered for trademark rights, it is highly unusual for a company to do so for fan clubs.
The report speculated that the name Army was also included because it was being used as a unique symbol and also stemming from the fact that the Army was a huge driving force behind the immense popularity of BTS.
On a different note, the music group has quite a bit of an influence on the young as revealed by a recent survey conducted by the Elementary Learning Institute of the smart home-learning program, i-Scream Home-Learn.
According to Soompi, when the 3,395 elementary school students, typically from the ages of 7 to 12, from around Korea in the survey were asked which person was the most memorable for them in 2018, 24.8 per cent of them answered BTS.
Many respondents apparently said the reason they chose BTS was, “They are someone who is very famous on TV or the internet” (26.6 per cent), and, “They taught people overseas about our country” (25.1 per cent).
Meanwhile, the uber popular music group continues to make an impact internationally by working hard and having a busy schedule.
The K-Pop juggernaut will be performing in Taiwan on Dec 8 and 9 before heading to Japan to attend the 2018 Mnet Asian Music Awards on Dec 12. Then the boys will be off to the AsiaWorld-Expo Arena in Hong Kong on Dec 14.
The tight itinerary continues until SBS’s 2018 Gayo Daejun event in Seoul on Christmas Day.