The Min Hee Jin termination hearing reached its third session in Seoul this week as the NewJeans song-rights case filed with Dojeon Media entered the pleadings phase on the same calendar, two separate dockets converging on one instrument: the catalog. ADOR's original operating agreement gave Min Hee Jin creative control, not catalog ownership, and the NewJeans members' lawyers are arguing that their debut-era trainee contracts, which predate the HYBE-ADOR governance structure, carry a label-default clause that existing ADOR bylaws cannot override. HYBE's Q1 royalty-collection line ran counter to both Spotify and UMG this cycle: label revenue up, artist advances compressed. The masters are paying.

The second docket is where the structural exposure concentrates. The NewJeans suit is not about streaming royalties from past releases; it is about catalog ownership for the next decade, and the breach-reclaim clause, if affirmed, creates precedent exposure across every HYBE debut-era act whose trainee contract was written on the same template. Min Hee Jin's termination proceedings are applying lateral pressure: her case referenced American copyright registrations on the ADOR catalog in the May filing, which pulls those records into U.S. federal discovery whether or not the Korean proceedings produce a ruling. YG's first new boy group in six years, confirmed the same week, is the timing signal every competitor reads as catalog-ownership positioning. The trainee contracts are Dojeon's lead exhibit.