The trademark dispute between Daehan Flour Mills and Seven Broyi, which sparked the craft beer boom by jointly launching "Gompyu Wheat Beer," is expected to lead to legal conflicts.
On the 18th, Daehan Flour Mills said, "Seven Broyi's continuous false claims have caused serious damage to our honor and business," adding, "We plan to file for damages due to significant harm caused by interfering with our operations." It also noted, "The damages claimed by Seven Broyi are unrelated to Daehan Flour Mills, and we have filed a lawsuit for confirmation of non-existence of debt."
Gompyu Wheat Beer is a beer launched in May 2020, created in collaboration between Seven Broyi, which was in charge of manufacturing, and Daehan Flour Mills, which holds the trademark. It led the craft beer craze with sales of 60 million cans over three years. Seven Broyi, which had been in the red until 2019, made an operating profit of 11.8 billion won in 2021 and is preparing for a KOSDAQ listing.
When the trademark usage agreement expired in March 2023, Daehan Flour Mills changed the manufacturer from Seven Broyi to Jeju Beer Company and released Gompyu Wheat Beer Season 2. Seven Broyi claims that Daehan Flour Mills unilaterally terminated the contract by leveraging its status as a dominant market player and has alleged that the brewing method for Gompyu Wheat Beer was leaked to Jeju Beer Company.
Daehan Flour Mills' position is that the collaboration on Gompyu Wheat Beer was a temporary project under a three-year trademark license agreement and that it ended normally with the expiration of the contract in 2023. According to the company, Gompyu Wheat Beer recorded accumulated sales of about 80 billion won over three years, with the royalties received by Daehan Flour Mills averaging just 400 million won per year.
A representative of Daehan Flour Mills stated, "We only provided the trademark, and all profits from manufacturing and sales went to Seven Broyi," adding, "It is difficult to accept that the party taking most of the revenue claims to be the victim."
Regarding the allegation of leaking the brewing method, they remarked, "We have never received any brewing method from Seven Broyi, nor have we passed any on to Jeju Beer Company," noting, "It is unreasonable to claim trade secret infringement based on general administrative documents that do not include core manufacturing information."
However, Seven Broyi immediately countered Daehan Flour Mills' position, claiming substantial damage from the launch of similar products and disposal of inventory after the contract ended. Seven Broyi stated, "While it is true that the contract ended with a three-year term, the issue is that products almost identical in composition and packaging design to the existing Gompyu Wheat Beer were launched by another manufacturer immediately after the termination." They also pointed out that over 2,000 tons of completed beer produced just before the contract ended were unable to be distributed and were discarded.
They also commented, "Beer undergoes a highly developed process where quality is determined by hundreds of raw materials, their combinations, and mixing ratios. Seven Broyi took six months to develop Gompyu Beer," adding, "Jeju Beer Company developed a product that is nearly identical in ingredients and composition to the existing product and completed the process from development to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reporting in just a month or two, which is hard to believe." They further stated, "Daehan Flour Mills claims to have terminated the contract with Seven Broyi to provide new excitement, but the products released afterwards are nearly identical to the existing products in terms of packaging, cans, and ingredients."