Michael Jordan petitions China’s highest court in trademark case

Former National Basketball Association (NBA) player Michael Jordan has reportedly asked China's highest court to hear a trademark dispute he is embroiled in against sports retailer Qiaodan Sports.

According to Reuters, the dispute concerns a trademark for the number '23' and the name Qiaodan, which is the Pinyin translation of Jordan.

The number 23 jersey was made famous by Jordan during his time playing for the NBA team Chicago Bulls.

Jordan registered trademarks covering the English version of his name in China in 1993, but he never registered the Chinese or Pinyin translation or the number 23.

Pinyin is the official phonetic system for transcribing pronunciations of Mandarin Chinese characters into the Latin alphabet.

Qiaodan registered trademarks in 1998 for ‘23’ and 'Qiaodan' and later for the Mandarin translation for Jordan in 2000.

In 2012, Jordan filed a trademark claim against Qiaodan at the People’s Court for Haidian District, in Beijing just as the company was about to go public.

After the Beijing court rejected Jordan's claim in 2012 he appealed against the decision but the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court dismissed the claim earlier this year.

Lawyers representing Jordan told Reuters that they would petition the Supreme People's Court to hear the case.

The court has not yet confirmed whether it will hear the case.

Neither Michael Jordan nor Qiaodan could be reached for comment.