Hyundai Motor and local chicken franchise Genesis BBQ are engaged in a lawsuit over the trademark rights of “Genesis.” Hyundai Motor, which launched the Genesis brand in 2015, has been in a legal battle with BBQ for dozens of trademark rights since 2016. The automaker has been asking for the cancellation of the trademark rights held by BBQ in some areas. The automaker was allowed to use the Genesis brand only related to automobiles because BBQ had registered trademark rights for

Hyundai Motor’s premium brand Genesis surpassed Mercedes-Benz in sales for the first time in four years in the local market, industry data showed Monday. According to the auto industry, Genesis sold 60,005 vehicles in the January-July period this year, while Mercedes-Benz and BMW sold 41,583 and 29,246, respectively. Sales of Genesis jumped 65 percent compared to the same period last year. Mercedes-Benz, on the other hand, increased 3 percent and BMW rose by 35 percent. In 2016, the

Manufacturing giants become AI-driven enterprises as IT firms facilitate the changes

SK Group, a South Korean telecom-to-chemicals conglomerate, ranked first in first-half net profit, beating Samsung Group on equity gains from its affiliates, a local market data provider said Sunday. In the six months that ended in June, SK Group's consolidated net profit jumped 32 percent to 6.19 trillion won ($5.2 billion) from 4.69 trillion won in the same period of last year, according to Info Bigs, a conglomerate-focused data service provider operated by Yonhap Infomax Inc. SK's stellar

Korea’s OTT market gains momentum since COVID-19 pandemic

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The United States is conducting anti-dumping, countervailing duties probe on South Korean steel pipe products, following complaints by a local company, an international traders organization said Saturday. The investigation on seamless carbon and alloy steel standard, line and pressure pipes was officially launched on July 28 by the US Department of Commerce, the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) said. It said Texas-based steelmaker Vallourec Star, claiming unfair price cutting, req

Kim Jae-shin, secretary-general of Fair Trade Commission, has been appointed by Cheong Wa Dae as the vice chairman of the antitrust government agency on Friday. It was part of the presidential office’s reshuffle of vice minister-level officials. Kim, who started his career at FTC after passing the civil service exam in 1990, is said to be an expert on policymaking regarding business practices. He served at various bureaus, including planning and coordination, business trade policy, c

Low cost carrier Jin Air posted an operating loss of 59.6 billion ($50.3 million) won during the second quarter, nearly doubling the loss it suffered the same time last year, according to its regulatory filing on Friday. The quarterly revenue stood at 23.2 billion won, down 89 percent from a year ago. Its net loss for the second quarter was 59 billion won. The low-cost subsidiary of Korean Air said its business suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic despite its efforts to increase domestic

Delivery workers at major logistics firms took a day off Friday, for the first time in 28 years since the introduction of a delivery system in the country. The companies have designated Aug. 14 as “Delivery worker’s refresh day,” amid surging workload in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. CJ Logistics, Hanjin, Lotte and Logen -- four major logistics companies here -- decided last month to give their delivery staff a day off, after they accepted the demand of two labor unions of

Hyundai Motor said Friday its electric compact sports utility vehicle Kona Electric succeeded in driving over 1,000 kilometers on a single battery charge, setting a new range record for electric vehicles. The auto maker said it had conducted a test run of three Kona Electric vehicles, the company‘s pure electric car brand, at EuroSpeedway Lausitzring, a racing circuit located in northeast Germany from July 22 to 24. Each of the three vehicles went 1,026 kilometers, 1,024.1 km and 1,01

Samsung Electronics’ said Friday its overseas research centers on artificial intelligence are gaining global recognition, winning top prizes in multiple competitions. The company’s researchers in Poland and China have won a highly prestigious global AI competition, winning global attention in speech translation research. Samsung R&D Institute Poland and Samsung R&D Institute China-Beijing competed with some of the world’s top universities and research labs to win f

Hyundai Rotem, a train-making subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group, said on Friday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ulsan Metropolitan City to build a hydrogen fuel cell tram for a demonstration project. The project will see the company roll out a hydrogen-powered tram and build a fueling station and a railway depot for a railway spanning 4.6 kilometers connecting Taehwagang Station and Ulsanhang Station in Ulsan – a line that has been left abandoned. Ulsan city will pr

A fire broke out at a warehouse outside LG Chem’s plant in Onsan, Ulsan, on Friday morning, which was put out an hour later. A flare-up was noticed at around 10:50 a.m., thought to have been from spontaneous combustion of crop protection agent materials, according to the company. No casualties were reported and people who were evacuated from the area, including workers on the site and residents, are safe. Following the incident, some media outlets reported there was leakage of chemical

Celltrion said Friday that it will begin clinical phase 1 trials of its Prolia biosimilar CT-P41 in September. The study aims to test CT-P41’s safety in healthy participants and is anticipated to wrap up in the first half of 2021. Celltrion said it plans to finish clinical phase 3 trials by February 2025 when Prolia’s patent in the US will expire. CT-P41, as a biosimilar, gets to bypass clinical phase 2 trials given that it proves its similarity to the original drug. Proli