ADOR Responds to NewJeans’ Name Change “Regretful Unilateral Decision, Hoping to Resolve Misunderstandings”
On February 7th, ADOR conveyed its stance to TV Report, “We would like to share ADOR’s position regarding the announcement of NewJeans’ activity name.”
ADOR expressed, “It is deeply regrettable that the members have made such a unilateral decision even before a legal ruling on the validity of their exclusive contract with ADOR.”
Reaffirming its commitment to protecting NewJeans’ brand value, ADOR stated, “We want to reiterate that we are always ready to meet with NewJeans members or their legal representatives to resolve any misunderstandings and discuss the group’s future activities.“
Previously, on the same day, fashion and culture festival ComplexCon announced on SNS that Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein (formerly known as “NewJeans”) will co-headline the event under their new name “NJZ”.
According to ComplexCon, this will be the first time NJZ will perform under their new moniker, and the group will be debuting never-before-heard music.
Regarding the name “NJZ”, Minji said in a press release, “We are thrilled to be stepping onto the stage for the first time as NJZ and share something new with everyone. It’s a big moment for us and we can’t wait for fans to be a part of this journey with us and show the world our new music that we have been eagerly waiting to share.”
Meanwhile, the girl group also tagged the ComplexCon Instagram account in a story on their independently created SNS, confirming the news.
The independent SNS of NewJeans, @jeanzforfree, also officially changed into @njz_official, with the profile picture showing the new group name, kickstarting a new journey.
On the other hand, after unilaterally declaring their departure for ADOR and HYBE, NJZ (NewJeans) previously held a contest to select their new stage name. However, their former agency, ADOR, insisted that such actions “constitute a serious breach of contract.”
In particular, the members said via SNS at the time, “Bunnies (fandom of NewJeans)! We will hold a 2-day contest where you suggest us a new stage name which we can use during a certain period of time. Please join by leaving comments! We will pick a name from the suggestions of Bunnies!”
On the other hand, NewJeans’ new name was previously suspected to be JeanZ, but no trademark application for this name was found. Now, as NewJeans rebrands into “NJZ”, questions about trademark application for this new name have also been raised.
Additionally, the contract lawsuit which determines the validity of NewJeans’ exclusive contract with ADOR is set to begin this April.
