The final decision by China's Supreme
People's Court in a trademark dispute case brought
by Michael Jordan has handed a partial victory to
the U.S. basketball icon.
The trademark dispute was lodged by Jordan
against China's trademark authority and Qiaodan
Sports Co. Ltd., a Chinese sportswear and shoe
manufacturer.
The SPC ruled the company had infringed
Michael Jordan's right of name, and violated the law
of trademark, and asked China's Trademark Review and
Adjudication Board of the State Administration for
Industry & Commerce to revoke the firm's use of "乔丹",
the Chinese characters for "Jordan".
However, the Supreme Court said the firm's
other trademarks involving the transliteration of
the players name into pinyin, "qiaodan" still stand,
as Michael Jordan does not own the name rights in
that form.
Pinyin is the official system in China for
transcribing Standard Chinese using the Latin
alphabet.
In 2012, Michael Jordan accused Qiaodan
Sports of unauthorized use of his name and identity.
Jordan lodged an appeal to the trademark
authority to revoke the trademarks in dispute, but
this was rejected.
Later, Jordan filed two lawsuits against the
adjudication of the trademark authority but lost
both.
In 2016, Jordan appealed to the SPC for a
retrial. The SPC accepted the appeal on the basis of
the Administrative Procedural Law.
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