Fragmented rights, storytelling shape cultural IP landscape in Japan, China, South Korea

16 Jun 2025 | 06:40 GMT | Insight

By Toko Sekiguchi

Fragmented ownership of intellectual property rights, increasing risks from cross-border trademark conflicts and the growing power of storytelling as a commercial strategy are reshaping how cultural content is developed and exported across Asia. IP issues surrounding cultural content are especially critical in South Korea, China and Japan, who are rapidly emerging as major exporters of intellectual property — from K-pop and anime to webtoons, fashion and film — making clear, enforceable rights essential to global success.

Fragmented ownership of intellectual property rights, increasing risks from cross-border trademark conflicts and the growing power of storytelling as a commercial strategy are reshaping how cultural content is developed and exported across Asia.

These were among the standout insights from a recent meeting* among intellectual property experts and industry insiders from South Korea, China and Japan, who warned that that without early trademark clearance and careful licensing strategy, creators and companies face growing legal and commercial risks in globalizing cultural assets.

Issues surrounding cultural content are especially critical in East Asia, where countries like South Korea, China and Japan are rapidly emerging as major exporters of intellectual property — from K-pop and anime to webtoons, fashion and film — making clear, enforceable rights essential to global success.

“The first thing to do, the top priority, is to research trademark rights — especially in China,” said Tony Kim, CEO of Korean company Brand Universe. Kim shared how a delay in acquiring footwear trademark rights for the Discovery brand almost jeopardized his licensing strategy for what is now Korea’s second-largest outdoor fashion lines.

Kim, whose company has turned legacy media and institutional brands like Discovery Channel, Spyder, JEEP, and Yale into lifestyle blockbusters in Asia, emphasized that success depends as much on storytelling as legal clearance. “You don’t just buy the brand — you plug in a new story,” he said. “That’s how you connect with local consumers.”

Japanese attorney at Mimura Komatsu Law Firm, Mio Hasegawa, warned about the legal opacity surrounding audiovisual rights in Japan, particularly under the country’s unique production committee system. The structure, often involving multiple co-owners, makes it difficult to license or adapt older works — especially when rights holders are defunct or untraceable.

“Global producers looking to adapt Japanese content need to understand who really holds which rights,” Hasegawa cautioned. “A single anime series can have ten or more rights stakeholders. And under Japanese law, many adaptations require unanimous consent — which can be practically impossible.”

Hasegawa, also addressed ongoing tensions over moral rights in Japan, especially the right of integrity.

Hasegawa, who is Hulu Japan’s former in-house counsel, also addressed the often misunderstood issue of moral rights, particularly the right of integrity, which cannot be waived in Japan. Even after a licensing agreement is signed, creators may object to how their works are adapted or interpreted.

Pointing to a recent scandal where a Japanese manga creator took her own life partly due to her objection about the television adaptation of her work, Hasegawa warned that conflict can arise even after contracts are signed, stressing the importance of careful negotiations in winning approval of the original creator.

Trademark attorney Wei He of Beijing Sanyou IP Agency pointed to the rapid expansion of cultural IP into consumer sectors — from food and hospitality to transport — and warned that character names, anime images, and even sound marks are now frequent targets for bad-faith registrations.

She explained that many titles and character names originally in Korean or Japanese can be hard to monitor in China because of how they’re registered — such as by device marks, not word marks. “It makes enforcement and searching difficult, especially for foreign rights holders.”

Wei advised companies to take a proactive, multi-pronged approach of monitoring malicious registrations, building blacklists and securing early protection for both traditional and non-traditional trademarks.

Despite jurisdictional differences, panelists agreed that early IP due diligence — from trademark clearance to rights mapping — is non-negotiable in scaling cultural content internationally.

*2025 AIPPI Trilateral Meeting, Gyeongju, South Korea, June 13-15, 2025.

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