Christian Metal Band Demon Hunter Sues Over KPop Demon Hunters Trademark – Interest

The Christian metal band Demon Hunter filed a lawsuit on August 18 in the California Central District Court against streaming service Netflix and live-entertainment promoter AEG Presents over the trademark of the massively popular 2025 animated film KPop Demon Hunters. Demon Hunter, through its corporation Hyde Lane, accused Netflix and AEG Presents of “jealously [guarding] and [enforcing] their own intellectual property rights… [and] willfully disregarding the rights of others in pursuit of profits.”

According to The Wrap (an entertainment industry news source), the complaint filed by Demon Hunter’s further asserted:

Even more devastatingly, by leveraging their superior resources and reach, Defendants can, and do, eclipse Hyde Lane’s Demon Hunter marks in the marketplace and effectively misappropriate the marks’ source-identifying significance… Thus, Defendants’ greater size and strength overwhelms Hyde Lane’s established identity, causing consumers to perceive Hyde Lane as affiliated with, sponsored by, or derived from Defendants and denuding Hyde Lane of power over its commercial fate.

Netflix and AEG Presents announced in May that they will hold a global concert tour for KPop Demon Hunters.

A spokesperson for Netflix said the allegations by Demon Hunter are “without merit” and added, “We look forward to vigorously defending this matter.”

Demon Hunter originated in Seattle in the early 2000s, and offered the self-titled album Demon Hunter as its first major release in 2002. Demon Hunter has gone on to release 12 studio albums, the most recent of which was 2025’s There Was a Light Here.

KPop Demon Hunters is a 2025 musical urban fantasy film that Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans directed at Sony Pictures Animation. Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo-seop, May Hong, Ji-yong Yoo, Yunjin Kim, Saniel Dae Kim, Ken Jeong, and Lee Byung-hun starred in he film, which premiered on Netflix and in select theaters on June 20, 2025. The film is Netflix‘s most streamed film of all time globally, with 500 million views as of March 13. Its first sing-along event in August 2025 made it Netflix‘s first film to top the U.S. weekend box office. Several trade news sources reported that Netflix and Sony are aiming to release a sequel in 2029.

Sources: Cartoon Brew, Demon Hunter’s profile on All Music, California Central District Court’s website via The Wrap