South Korean rapper G-Dragon – real name Kwon Ji-yong – has acquired the trademark rights to his stage name from former agency, YG Entertainment.
Today (August 2), G-Dragon’s new agency GALAXY Corporation, which he signed to last year, confirmed to South Korean news outlet OSEN that the rapper had been able to acquire his stage name from his former label.
“It is true that Kwon Ji-yong has been transferred the trademark rights for ‘G-Dragon’ from YG Entertainment,” a representative from GALAXY Corporation told OSEN, per The Chosun Daily.
The latter publication also reported that G-Dragon has also received trademark rights for other names related to the rapper, including the acronym ‘GD’.
The move comes months after his label confirmed that G-Dragon would be making his long-awaited comeback “in the second half of this year”. At the time, the agency also said that the K-pop star would also be “carrying out global activities and activities in Japan” as part of his comeback.
G-Dragon’s last solo release was his self-titled EP ‘Kwon Ji-yong’ in 2017. The K-pop idol first debuted as a member of K-pop boyband Big Bang in 2016, before launching a solo career in 2009 with his debut studio album ‘Heartbreaker’.
In other G-Dragon news, the rapper was appointed as special professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) under the Department of Mechanical Engineering last month.
In other K-pop news, Korean-Canadian singer Jeon Somi has released a music video for her new single, ‘Ice Cream’, featuring a cameo from Park Seo-joon.