While the bubbling lawsuit of rights of the name “Jordan” between American basketball player Michael Jordan and Chinese company Qiaodan Sports Co., Ltd in Jinjiang of Fujian Province.(hereinafter referred to as Qiaodan) is still in trail, the two parties got a verdict of trademark dispute recently. The Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of China (TRAB) dismiss the objection against 80 trademarks including No. 3148047 trademark “乔丹” and No. 3148050 “QIAODAN” trademark and No. 3028870 figurative trademark.

Qiaodan started to use “Qiaodan” as trade name since 2000 and registered at Quanzhou Administrative Bureau for Industry and Commerce later. Qiaodan uses “乔丹” and its figure as main registered trademarks and registers over 130 defensive trademarks during the years.

Nike International Ltd., having long term relationship with Michael Jordan, filed objections to 8 defensive trademarks separated in 2002 and 2007 but all of them were rejected. Nike International Ltd. requested reviews about 7 of them but the requests were all rejected.

TRAB held that the harmful effects Jordon claimed was based on the premise of confusingly similarity between the trademark and his name. “QIAODAN” and “乔丹” are different from “Michael Jordan” and “迈 克 尔·乔 丹”. Besides, as Jordan is a common name in English, it is hard to identify corresponding relationship between “Jordan” and Michael Jordan. Generally considered, it cannot be decided that the relationship between “QIAODAN” and Michael Jordan is more closed than “QIAODAN” and Qiaodan.Based on these facts, TRAB rejected Michael Jordan爷s objection and affirmed the trademarks.

(by Wang Guohao)

(Source: CHINA REPORT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY)