Explanations about judgments from Austrian an Canadian Courts

Question: Master Trân, in your recent message to the ITF National Associations, which was also posted on the ITF Website, you announced that judges in Canada and in Austria have handed down decisions in favor of the ITF in three important court cases.
In this interview, let’s take a closer look at the subject of the legal status of the ITF.

Master Trân: Since the news of the legal decisions was posted on the Website, we have received very positive reactions from people around the world, but there are also some questions raised. We all know that legal matters are not easy to understand, so I am happy to have the opportunity to make the situation as clear as possible for everyone who is interested in Taekwon-Do and the ITF.

To become familiar with the past and current legal action undertaken by the ITF, I recommend reading the document entitled "Legal Status Timeline" (see related document 1).

Related document 1:
Legal Status Timeline (PDF document, 167 kB)

Question: Could you tell us what motivated the ITF Board of Directors to take legal action against Master Choi Jung Hwa?

Master Trân: Master Choi Jung Hwa was using the ITF name and had registered the trademarks – the logos with the “fist” and the “tree” symbols – that identify the organization, but he did not have the legal right to do so.

These legal actions against Master Choi Jung Hwa were started before General Choi’s death, because he did not want the ITF to lose the right to these symbols that had been used by the organization for many years. The ITF team elected at the Warsaw Congress in June 2003 agreed that we had a responsibility to see these cases through to the end. If we had let these cases drop, Master Choi Jung Hwa would have been in a position to stop the ITF and its members from using the ITF name as well as our logos with the “fist” and “tree” symbols .

Question: I understand there were actually two legal actions taken in Canada against Master Choi Jung Hwa.

Master Trân: Yes, and the outcome was positive in both cases.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice (see related document 2) issued a permanent injunction preventing Master Choi Jung Hwa and his people from using the ITF name (or any similar names). The court also ordered him to pay to the ITF all profits earned from his use of the ITF name.

The other case was heard in the Federal Court of Canada (see related document 3) and involved registered marks used by the ITF (the ITF “fist” logo and the “tree logo”). The judge decided that these marks belong to the ITF.

Our Canadian lawyers have been instructed to take any actions deemed necessary to make sure these decisions are respected.

Related documents:
2. Ontario Superior Court of Justice - Default Judgement vs. Master Choi 2007 07 25
(PDF document, 1,54 MB)
3. Canada Federal Court - Reasons for Judgement and Judgement vs. Master Choi 2006 12 05
(PDF document, 680 kB MB)

Question: Apparently there are some who think that, out of loyalty to General Choi, you should not have taken legal action against his son.

Master Trân: As I mentioned earlier in this interview, it was on General Choi’s instructions that the ITF initiated these two cases against Master Choi Jung Hwa in the first place. So by seeing these cases to conclusion, we have actually proved once again our loyalty to General Choi.

General Choi founded the ITF and gave it a Constitution. He created Taekwon-Do along with the underlying philosophy and taught us to live by the principles of that philosophy. He encouraged us to fight for truth and justice. I can assure you that decisions made by the ITF leadership team are always based on those principles.

Question: There have also been court cases in Europe, but the outcome has not always been positive for the ITF.

Master Trân: That is true, but I must say that we have always been confident that the truth would come out and that we would have a positive outcome in the end.

Question: For example, in 2003 a group of three national ITF federations in Europe (Germany, Poland and Spain) petitioned for a legal injunction to stop the Chang Ung group from holding their world championship in Thessalonica (Greece), but the injunction was not granted.

Master Trân: Actually, the judge decided that he did not have jurisdiction because their championship was being held in Greece, so he declined to hear the case. However, it is interesting to note that he stated that because Mr. Chang Ung had not been elected in conformity with the ITF constitution, he had no legal status in relation to the ITF.

Question: And in 2004 the ITF asked for a court order to evict the representatives of the Chang Ung group from the ITF headquarters building in Vienna, but that request was denied.

Master Trân: Yes. The District Court judge Mag. Alexander Vragovic accepted the Chang Ung side’s explanation that, although they had acted contrary to the ITF Constitution by naming him president, they had put it right by their subsequent actions. We have appealed this decision.

Question: Does Civil Court in Vienna decision by Judge Kluger have an effect on this case?

Master Trân: According to information that I received from Master Weiler that the Judge Kluger gave instruction to the District court to consider, while the District court exam our appeal the recent judgment from the Civl Court in our favor.That is why we did not receive the result from the appeal yet.

Question: Can you tell us why the ITF Board of Directors decided to take legal action against Mr. Chang Ung’s group?

Master Trân: Our Founder, General Choi Hong Hi created the ITF as a legally-constituted organization with a Constitution. By proclaiming Mr. Chang Ung as president of the ITF, rather than holding a valid election, that group acted contrary to the Constitution. Mr. Chang Ung claims to be the president of the ITF and the representative of all its members and practi-tioners, but this is just not true.

This is an ethical problem but it is also a legal problem, so we took legal action to solve the legal problem.

Question: Can you give us some details about this case?

Master Trân: Certainly. This case was extremely important since the court was asked to decide which Congress and election of officers of the ITF is legal and, therefore, who are the legitimate leaders of the ITF.

The judgment of the Provincial Court for civil Law Matters (see related document 4) by Judge Mag. Susanne Korn confirmed, on september 2005, the election at the 2003 Congress in Warsaw, but that was a judgment by default. The Chang Ung group appealed the verdict, saying that since they had not received the court papers, they had not been able to prepare a defense. The court accepted to hear the appeal.

The recently-announced judgment of the Civil Court of Vienna on August 2007 by Judge Kluger (see related document 5&6) confirms that the ITF Congress held in Warsaw (Poland) in 2003 was legal accor-ding to the ITF Constitution and that the members Board of Directors elected at that time (and re-elected at the June 2007 Congress) are the legitimate leaders of the ITF.

Our Austrian lawyer tells us that the judge also gave instructions to the District Court to examine our appeal in the light of her findings. This means that appeal should also be decided in our favor.

Related documents:
4. Judgement by default Austrian Court certified translation 2005 10 27
(PDF document, 43 kB)
5. Report decision first instance Austrian Court 2007 09 30 - German
(PDF document, 933 kB)
6. Report decision first instance Austrian Court 2007 09 30 - English Translation
(PDF document, 40 kB)

Question: Why do you think the Civil Court decided in favor of the ITF?

Master Trân: I traveled to Vienna to testify in this case, and I can tell you that I was very impressed by the proceedings.

Judge Dr. Kruger took the time to listen carefully to each witness who appeared before her and to examine all the documents presented to the court. She produced a 20-page written decision that defines the questions she was asked to rule on, reviews the history of the ITF since 2001, and provides a thoughtful analysis of the evidence.

Here are some of important points the judge mentioned to justify her decision in our favor:

• When General Choi died, Mr. Russel McLellan as Senior Vice President became acting President according to the provisions of the ITF Constitution.
• It cannot be stated with certainty that General Choi expressed a wish that Mr. Chang Ung be his successor as president of the ITF but, in any case, that question has no relevance to the legal questions in this case;
• Mr. Chang Ung was never elected president of the ITF. He just started acting as if he were the president;
• Master Leong Wai Meng’s description of the “congress” held at the memorial service did not provide any essential information to the court. He also testified that an election for the presidency took place in Thessalonica and that Mr. Chang Ung was elected president. However, Master Leong Wai Meng’s testimony was contradicted by that of Mr. Chang Ung who confirmed that there was no election in Thessalonica. Since Mr. Chang Ung claimed to be the president of the ITF; the court took his testimony over that of Master Leong Wai Meng who claims to be a member of the Board of Directors.
• In any case, Mr. Russell McLellan, acting President at that time, did not send out invita-tions to a general assembly in Pyongyang in conjunction with the 100-day memorial in Pyongyang. In fact, when he realized that the memorial was being transformed into a makeshift general assembly, Mr. McLellan pointed out that Mr. Chang Ung did not have the right to be introduced as the president or to take any actions on behalf of the ITF.
• The ITF is a society under Austrian Law with its headquarters located in Vienna and with by-laws (the Constitution and regulations) which must be observed. The so-called congress at the memorial service in Pyongyang did not in the least comply with those by-laws. The judge did not need to decide if any resolutions made at that gathering were valid, because they were void from the beginning. That is why the judge decided there was no necessity to dwell on what actually happened at the memorial service;
• It was established that the election at the Warsaw Congress was carried out in conformity with the ITF Constitution and by-laws, and the judge declared that this election is valid.

The Civil Court judge’s decision confirms what we have said all along, and Mr. Chang Ung’s claim that he is the president of the ITF has been discredited.

We are certainly pleased with this positive outcome but, as I said earlier, we always believed that the truth would be established eventually and that justice would be done.

Question: But what if the other side decides to appeal this judgment?

Master Trân: As a matter of fact, they have lodged a motion for an appeal. However, since both sides had plenty of time to prepare and to present all their evidence to the judge, I don’t believe that any new facts could be presented to justify an appeal.

Our lawyer in Vienna informs us that the appeal will in probably deal only with probably deal only with the legal aspects of the case, since the first instance judge has already ascertained the facts of the case. And I would point out that the judge did not believe the testimony from Mr. Chang Ung and his supporters was credible. More importantly, she stated that only the ITF leadership team had always tried to act in conformity with the ITF Constitution and with Austrian law.

Question: Since the ITF does not have unlimited financial means, is it wise to spend money on lawyers’ fees and court costs?

Master Trân: It is true that we have had to budget carefully (especially because the Chang Ung group took the 160,000USD that was in the ITF bank account), and at the same time we needed all our resources to modernize the structure of the organization and provide additional services to our members.

However, we believe that fighting for truth and justice is worth the investment in time and money. Ask yourself this: How could we do otherwise and still be true to the TKD student oath: “I shall be a champion of freedom and justice”? It is a matter of principle.

As leaders of the organization, we have a responsibility to all of our members to clear up such situations. Then we will all be free to concentrate on what is important: practicing Taekwon-Do and living the Taekwon-Do way of life.

Question: So what are the next steps for the ITF? (I am talking here about legal steps.)

Master Trân: Logically, the next step would be to petition the court to evict the Chang Ung group from the ITF headquarters building in Vienna and turn over the building to the legitimate ITF.

There is also the question of the money misappropriated by the Chang Ung group (the 160,000USD that they group took from the ITF bank account, for example). We intend to ask the court to order them to pay back any money that rightfully belongs to the ITF.

Question: Are there any other actions you will be taking as a result of this court decision?

Master Trân: In the past, I have written to the President of the International Olympic Committee, the members of the IOC Ethics Commission, as well as the Presidents of the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) and of the World Taekwondo Federation to inform them of the unethical and illegal actions of Mr. Chang Ung and his group.

I will be sending them an update on the situation, including copies of official documents related to the legal decisions. We also intend to ask GAISF to officially recognize the ITF.

Question: Master Trân, what would you say to anyone who is affiliated with another Taekwon-Do organization or to those who are not currently affiliated with any organization?

Master Trân: First of all, I would like to tell them that the ITF is willing to welcome all Taekwon-Do practitioners. It doesn’t matter which country they live in, what language they speak, how old they are, whether they are rich or poor, or what political views they may hold.

What matters is that they want to practice Taekwon-Do in a democratically operated organization that respects its members and works for their benefit and that they agree to respect the Constitution, the by-laws, the policies and procedures of the ITF.

If you are considering joining the ITF, I suggest you start by looking at what we have accomplished over the four years since the Congress in Warsaw. Read the speech I gave at that Congress in 2003, which outlined our plans, and the speech I gave after I and the other members of the Board of Directors were reelected last June. Then have a look at the President’s Messages since 2003. You will soon realize that we have done what we said we would do. (The documents are available on the official ITF Website.)

One example I could mention is our promise to improve the quality of ITF competitions. Our Tournament Committee has been very proactive, and I am pleased to say that lot of progress has been made in the last four years. At the recent Senior and Junior World Championships in Quebec City (Canada) the competitors were very impressed with the improvements.

Other accomplishments include the implementation of a more efficient business-like approach to management, more emphasis on democratic practices in all ITF-affiliated organizations, clearly defined policies and procedures that are applied fairly and to everyone, training teachers how to teach the Do to their students. We have introduced Leadership Camps and new seminars with information on a of topics to help our National Associations to operate more efficiently, and many more International Instructor Courses have been held in various locations around the world.

The ITF team had big plans in 2003, and we have proved that we have the ability to carry out our plans. We have big plans for the next four years too. We will continue to work to make the ITF better and even more responsive to the needs of its members.

Question: As you mentioned, in recent years there has been a lot more emphasis on the Taekwon-Do philosophy, the Do.

Master Trân: Yes, the Do is an extremely important aspect of ITF Taekwon-Do.

General Choi wrote that the Do had been somewhat neglected in favor of the more technical aspects of Taekwon-Do. As he pointed out, it is essential to study and apply the Do in our lives in order to reap the full benefits of practicing Taekwon-Do.

By teaching the Do, we are teaching our students to use all the tools our Founder gave us to build a better life and create a more peaceful world.

Question: What if I have been practicing Taekwon-Do for some time and hold a black belt degree granted by another organization? If I decide to join the ITF, will my black belt degree be recognized? Would I be “punished” by being demoted to a lower level degree?

Master Trân: Obviously, this is a legitimate concern. We all know how much time and effort goes into earning each black belt degree. At the ITF, we recognize that, in the martial arts tradition, students owe respect to their masters, so it is natural that they follow where their masters lead.

I can assure you that there is no “punishment” for time spent as a member of another organization, and we are happy to consider applications from black belt degree holders from all organizations who now wish to join the ITF.

Because such cases do arise, the ITF has established an official policy about the recognition of black belt degrees granted by other organizations. Each case is considered individually, and a decision is made based on that policy. In order to facilitate their integration, we have made special provisions for black belt holders from other organizations. The time required for delivery of a replacement ITF black belt degree certificate has been shortened and the price has been reduced.

That said, I think it should be obvious to everyone that we cannot recognize a degree that was granted for political reasons or if that person had not taken the time necessary to train properly or if the promotion was granted without a rigorous exam.

If we were to recognize such promotions, we would lose all credibility and ITF black belts would soon have no value. Also, I am sure that everyone will agree that it would not be fair to those students who train faithfully for years and complete all the requirements for promotion to each degree.

Members of the Board of Directors
elected at the Congress in Quebec City (Canada) on June 1st, 2007

Download the interview in PDF format (7,66 MB)