Basketball legend Michael Jordan's 8-year-long saga through the Chinese courts resulted in a partial victory for his intellectual property case against a Chinese sports brand.
China's top judicial body, the Supreme People's Court, on March 4 found Qiaodan Sports, a company based in China's southern Fujian province, had illegally used Jordan's name in Chinese characters, according to the verdict.
However, the court also ruled that the dribbling silhouette used as the Chinese company's logo did not violate Jordan's portraiture rights, meaning Qiaodan Sports could continue to use the image.
China's Supreme People's Court has handed basketball legend #MichaelJordan's brand #AirJordan a victory in an eight-year-long trademark dispute over the use of his name by a Chinese sportswear manufacturer Qiaodan, revoking its trademark and its logo, Sina NBA reports. pic.twitter.com/l1alqraODB
" CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) April 8, 2020
The court overturned two lower court rulings in 2014 and 2015 that favored the Fujian-based company.
Qiaodan's company's logo in dispute often features two parts, a silhouette of a player dribbling a basketball along with the Chinese characters of "Qiaodan." "Qiao Dan" or "Qiaodan" are Chinese transliterations of the name Jordan. The company frequently used the Chinese characters and the romanized version in its branding.
This dribbling silhouette image bears some resemblance to Nike's Air Jordan series' own iconic Jumpman logo, which features a silhouette of Jordan dunking a basketball.
On Wednesday, Qiaodan Sports issued a statement on China's Twitter-like Weibo saying the court's decision would still allow the company to use other approved logos such as the silhouette in its branding.
The verdict also did not mention any procedures on the profits Qiaodan Sports had earned from using Jordan's name illegally.
"The Supreme Court verdict has ruled this logo be retried by the trademark office, but we don't know what the retrial will be like, and we are not sure whether Jordan will sue Qiaodan Sports again after the retrial," said Xu Chendi, a lawyer for the Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm.
China is currently in the process of drafting an action plan on intellectual property protection as required by the phase-one trade deal with the US, which was signed in January. It is expected to address a number of US concerns, including trademarks and enforcement against pirated and counterfeit goods.
Last week, China's Supreme Court invalidated two trademarks imitating the signature "N" mark used by US athletic shoemaker New Balance, bringing a decade-long dispute to an end. New Balance hailed the verdict as "the most significant precedent."
Since 2012, Jordan has filed 80 lawsuits against Qiaodan Sports, including suits for the unauthorized use of his Chinese name, his silhouette, his retired jersey number of 23 and the names of his two children " losing on all occasions until 2016.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that it was legal for the company to continue using the pinyin " the Western phonetic spelling of Chinese words " of Jordan's Chinese name, both qiaodan and QIAODAN, but not the Chinese characters.
Jordan argued that the unauthorized use of his name would suggest he endorsed Qiaodan Sports. He also argued that their behavior was an infringement of his rights before the registration of the trademarks in China.
In previous hearings, the Beijing First Intermediate People's Court and the Beijing Higher People's Court said that Jordan was a common American surname and that Qiaodan Sports had not exclusively referred to the American sports icon.
The courts also said that it was difficult for the public to identify the silhouette as Jordan's image because there were no facial features included within the logo.
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