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Gentle Monster Owner Takes Blue Elephant to Court in 12 Billion Won Copycat Case

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Gentle Monster Owner Takes Blue Elephant to Court in 12 Billion Won Copycat Case

South Korean prosecutors have indicted Blue Elephant founder Choi Jin-woo for selling 12.3 billion won ($9 million) worth of eyewear allegedly copied directly from Gentle Monster parent IICOMBINED.

The criminal case in Daejeon District Court is the first in South Korea to test whether unpatented fashion designs receive criminal protection against direct three-dimensional replication.

Prosecutors allege Blue Elephant sent photographs of Gentle Monster frames bearing its own logo directly to overseas contract manufacturers between 2023 and mid-2025. The company produced and sold approximately 321,000 units across 51 separate models during that window. Forensic 3D scanning commissioned by IICOMBINED showed 29 models matched at least 95 per cent of Gentle Monster contour lines, with 18 exceeding 99 per cent congruence. The comparison matched Gentle Monster’s 2021 JEFF frame to Blue Elephant’s 2023 ZENTA model at 99.9441 per cent.

The dispute exposes the commercial fault line running through the South Korean optical sector, which expanded 74 per cent between 2022 and 2025 to reach 4.7 trillion won. Gentle Monster built its brand equity on gallery-format flagship stores, celebrity campaigns featuring Tilda Swinton and Stray Kids’ Felix, and luxury partnerships with Maison Margiela and Prada. Its acetate frames retail between 200,000 and 300,000 won.

Blue Elephant replicated the gallery retail concept in Seoul’s Seongsu-dong shopping district while pricing lookalike acetate frames between 50,000 and 70,000 won. 7 billion won. 3 billion won as retail overhead climbed.



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