After Chinese media reported on December 14 that the lawsuit filed by SM Entertainment against their former talent Huang Zitao, or more popularly known as "Tao", had been dismissed by the Chinese Court last month, it would seem that Tao's beef with SM Entertainment is still far from over.
According to Tao's lawyer, the Chinese court had ruled that Tao has the right to use his own name whilst pursuing his activities in China which means that the contract he had signed with his former company has no power while he is in the jurisdiction of his home country, Allkpop reports. Tao's lawyer also repeated his claim that SM Entertainment wishes to damage his client's reputation, image and activities through legal means.
If you can remember, Tao had formally filed to depart from SM Entertainment and his group EXO back in August 2015 after he had involuntarily left months before. As a result, SM Entertainment had filed several lawsuits against the rapper in both South Korea and China. The lawsuit in question was filed by SM Entertainment last September 2015 citing a breach of contract on Tao's part as he continues to partake in various activities in the Chinese entertainment industry. SM firmly stated that Tao could not engage in other activities as he still bound to the contract as it is yet to be nullified by a rule of court.
In response to the Chinese court's dismissal of their lawsuit against Tao, SM Entertainment said that the dismissed lawsuit is just one of many lawsuits that they had filed against Tao.
"We are planning to quickly file an appeal regarding the decision citing an error of interpretation in regards to Chinese domestic law. This has no connection to the lawsuits we had filed in Korea as they are all still ongoing." SM Entertainment said as reported by Soompi.
Back in January 2016, SME had won a different lawsuit against Tao after he had failed to repay the company after his departure.
