Demon Hunter Sues Netflix Over Kpop Demon Hunters Name
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Demon Hunter filed a trademark lawsuit against Netflix on Tuesday over the streamer's "Kpop Demon Hunters" film, alleging the movie, merchandise, and planned global concert tour create "almost complete overlap" with their offerings.
- The suit, filed by the band's company Hyde Lane, names Netflix Studios and live promoter AEG Presents as defendants and cites consumer confusion including a person who allegedly spent $500 on Demon Hunter tickets thinking they were for a child-friendly Kpop show.
- Demon Hunter, a five-piece Seattle band that released its 12th album in September 2025, registered "Demon Hunter" as a trademark for recorded music and merchandise in 2022 and has applied for one covering live performances.
- The band's legal complaint declares their 25-year-old brand "now faces an existential crisis," and they seek an injunction blocking Netflix's use of the name for recorded music, live shows, and merchandise plus unspecified damages.
- Netflix's Kpop Demon Hunters — a 2025 animated film following K-pop girl group Huntr/X — is the most-watched original title in Netflix history, won best animated film and best original song for "Golden" at the 2026 Golden Globes and Oscars, and is set for a global live tour beginning in 2027.
- The KPop Demon Hunters cast has 27 million monthly Spotify listeners compared to Demon Hunter's 350,000 — a scale gap at the heart of the dispute.
Why it matters: A band with 350,000 monthly Spotify listeners is taking legal aim at Netflix's most-watched original title ever (27 million listeners for the cast), and the confusion cited in the complaint — including a $500 misdirected ticket purchase for a parent's small children — shows how the franchise's mainstream crossover into merchandise and live tours is creating real consumer overlap with the metal band's registered marks.
Ask SkimNews
