Slam dunk: Michael Jordan victorious in China TM dispute

Basketball legend Michael Jordan has emerged victorious in a trademark dispute heard by the Supreme People’s Court of China.

In a judgment released on Thursday, December 8, the court held that Chinese sportswear company Qiaodan Sports must stop using the characters for Jordan's name, according to the BBC.

‘Qiaodan’ (乔丹) is the pinyin translation of ‘Jordan’ in Chinese. Pinyin is the system for transcribing Mandarin Chinese characters into the Latin script.

A statement on Qiaodan Sports’ website said: “Our company respects the retrial ruling made by the Supreme People's Court and will fulfil the protection of our brand and its related intellectual property rights according to law.” (Chinese translation).

Jordan had registered  a trademark for the word ‘Jordan’ in 1993 in China, but Qiaodan Sports registered the terms ‘Qiaodan’, ‘Qiao Dan’ and the Chinese character translation of ‘Jordan’ in 1998.

Qiaodan Sports also registered the number ‘23’, Jordan’s former playing number, as a trademark in the same year.

Jordan alleged that the use of his name and the number ‘23’ without his permission was an infringement.

In a statement, Jordan said: “I am happy that the Supreme People’s Court has recognised the right to protect my name through its ruling in the trademark cases.”

He added that Chinese consumers "deserve to know" that Qiaodan Sports and its products have "no connection" to him.

“Nothing is more important than protecting your own name, and today's decision shows the importance of that principle,” said Jordan.

He added that he respects the Chinese legal system and looks forward to a Shanghai court’s ruling on a separate naming rights case.