{"id":10633,"date":"2026-05-09T07:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T07:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/newjeans-members-and-hybe-face-copyright-lawsuit-over-how-sweet\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T07:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T07:47:11","slug":"newjeans-members-and-hybe-face-copyright-lawsuit-over-how-sweet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/newjeans-members-and-hybe-face-copyright-lawsuit-over-how-sweet\/","title":{"rendered":"NewJeans Members and HYBE Face Copyright Lawsuit Over \u2018How Sweet\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tThe members of NewJeans and their label partners have been sued in the U.S. over purported similarities between their hit 2024 track \u201cHow Sweet\u201d and an outside demo submitted during the songwriting process. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Thursday (May 7) lawsuit, obtained and first reported by Billboard<\/em>, lodges copyright infringement claims against NewJeans\u2019 label ADOR, its parent company HYBE and performers Minji, Hanni, Haerin, Hyein and Danielle. The five women were part of NewJeans beginning in 2022, though Danielle recently departed amid a contract dispute between the powerhouse K-pop girl group and ADOR.<\/p>\n

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\n\tNewJeans released \u201cHow Sweet\u201d in May 2024 on an EP of the same name. The song went on to peak at No. 15 on the Billboard Global 200 and No. 7 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart. Four songwriters are now alleging that the track copied key elements from their demo \u201cOne of a Kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to the lawsuit, songwriter Audrey Armacost was sent an instrumental track by her publisher in January 2024 and invited to submit topline lyrics and melody for consideration by NewJeans. Armacost convened with three other writers \u2014 Aidan Rodriguez<\/strong>, Adam Gokcebay<\/strong> and Michael Campanelli<\/strong> \u2014 and together, they say they wrote and recorded \u201cOne of a Kind\u201d over that instrumental.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe four writers say they sent \u201cOne of a Kind\u201d along to NewJeans, but were told it was not selected. Yet when \u201cHow Sweet\u201d was released four months later, the lawsuit claims the song\u2019s first verse was \u201cquantitatively and qualitatively similar\u201d to the first verse in \u201cOne of a Kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBoth works are in 4\/4 meter and the key of B flat minor,\u201d reads the legal complaint. \u201cAnd both works contain a topline that includes an approximately eight-bar, 31-note melodic sequence consisting of four series.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tArmacost, Rodriguez, Gokcebay and Campanelli allege HYBE, ADOR, the NewJeans members, and a host of other collaborators and distributors violated their rights by failing to license the \u201cOne of a Kind\u201d demo. Through the lawsuit, the four songwriters are seeking a cut of the royalties from the \u201cgreat commercial success\u201d of \u201cHow Sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPlaintiffs, as joint authors and co-owners of the composition of \u2018How Sweet,\u2019 are entitled to their pro rata share of the profits that defendants have each gained from the exploitation of \u2018How Sweet,\u2019\u201d the complaint reads. <\/p>\n

\n\tA lawyer for the four writers, Trevor Barrett<\/strong>, said in a Friday (May 8) statement to Billboard<\/em>, \u201cAdam, Aidan, Audrey and Michael are accomplished songwriters who were deeply disappointed to discover this blatant copying of their original song, \u2018One of a Kind,\u2019 in New Jeans\u2019 \u2018How Sweet.\u2019 They look forward to having their rights acknowledged and vindicated via this lawsuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReps from HYBE did not immediately return a request for comment on the claims.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe new lawsuit comes in the midst of an ongoing reconciliation between some members of NewJeans and ADOR following a protracted legal battle of their own.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2024, all five original NewJeans members attempted to sever ties with the HYBE subsidiary and go independent under the new moniker NJZ following the controversial firing of their mentor, former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin<\/strong>. This led to a lawsuit, and ADOR ultimately prevailed when a a South Korean court ruled in October that the women must remain under an exclusive contract until 2029.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the wake of that ruling, Hanni, Haerin and Hyein all decided to return to ADOR and resume working with the label. Danielle will not be part of NewJeans\u2019 future; ADOR announced in December that they label had dropped her from the group and alleged that a member of her family bears \u201csignificant responsibility for causing this dispute.\u201d Minji is still negotiating a possible return, and The Korea Herald<\/a> <\/em>reported this week that discussions are moving in a \u201cpositive direction.\u201d<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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The members of NewJeans and their label partners have been sued in the U.S. over purported similarities between their hit 2024 track \u201cHow Sweet\u201d and an outside demo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[429,422,1551,303,1865,1547,649],"class_list":["post-10633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-copyright","tag-face","tag-hybe","tag-lawsuit","tag-members","tag-newjeans","tag-sweet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}