Park Seo Joon Wins Partial Lawsuit Over Unauthorized Use of His Image by Restaurant

Actor Park Seo Joon sued the owner of a restaurant who had hosted a filming location for tvN’s 2018 drama What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim. The dispute arose after the restaurant displayed banners with phrases like “The place where Park Seo Joon devoured ganjang gejang (soy marinated raw crab)” for over five years, without the actor’s consent.

The Seoul Eastern District Court ruled in favor of Park Seo Joon, acknowledging a violation of his portrait rights, and ordered the restaurant to pay 5 million KRW (approx. $3,700) in damages. While Park claimed a loss of 6 billion KRW based on commercial advertising rates over six years, the court deemed the claim excessive, noting the restaurant’s small scale.

The restaurant owner argued that using drama scenes for promotional purposes was standard industry practice. However, the court emphasized that commercial use of a celebrity’s image or name without permission constitutes a clear violation of their rights.

Park Seo Joon had also requested an injunction to ban further use of the material, but the court dismissed it, stating the banners and ads had already been removed.

Park Seo-joon’s agency, Awesome ENT, provided context to Newsen regarding the legal action.

“The agency had repeatedly requested since 2019 that the restaurant stop using his image,” they stated. “However, the owner would temporarily take down the banners and ads, only to repost them later. Eventually, they stopped responding altogether, continuing these malicious actions, which led us to pursue legal measures.”

Although the estimated damage, based on standard endorsement fees, was around 6 billion KRW, the agency explained that the actual claim was set at 60 million KRW ($44,100 USD), taking into account the restaurant’s business scale.

The agency added, “We’re also aware of ongoing malicious ridicule and secondary attacks following the court’s reasonable ruling. There will be no leniency or settlement regarding further violations of our artist’s portrait and personality rights. We will respond firmly.”

With neither party filing an appeal, the ruling is now final.