"Jordan" Trademark Disputes Administrative Disputes Series Of Public Sentencing

American basketball star and flying man Michael Jeffrey Jordan In October of 2015, she once visited China, not for other business activities, but for her own Jordan. brand 30th anniversary celebration platform. At that time, the stars were shining on the scene, and there were many stars in the domestic sports circles. When they saw the God of basketball, big coffee became "little fans" instantly. Jordan The fanatic collector of shoes.

However, the widely watched activity led by NIKE (Jordan brand is its brand) did not bring any luck to the brand. It was settled after the nearly five years of litigation between the US company and Jordan, a Chinese sporting goods company.

In December 8th, the Supreme People's court "Jordan" trademark disputes administrative disputes series of cases were publicly declared.

Who in the world won?

According to the world clothing shoes and hats net, a total of 68 trademarks are involved in this series of cases. Of the 10 trademarks judged by the Supreme Court, 3 of the trademarks were judged by the Supreme Court to be unable to use the "Jordan" Chinese trademark. What needs to be pointed out is that these three trademarks belong to the defensive trademarks of Jordan sports (used in alcoholic beverages, etc.) and have not yet been actually used in production and sales. According to the company's reply to the reporter's explanation, the rejection was "due to the shorter application time."

Most people are concerned about Jordan's sporting goods, that is, shoes, hats, clothing and other products, which is also the main business of the company, but this is not in the list of trials. The reply given by Jordan sports is that the 4 trademarks used by the company (the following figure) have been rejected by the Supreme Court before the hearing of the case, and the retrial application of Michael Jordan has been rejected. The company said, "our company has won 65 pieces of 68 trademarks in this series of cases, and all the Chinese, Pinyin and graphic trademarks used in production and operation can be used normally, and production and operation will not be affected."

"In other words, the 25 kinds of trademarks that Jordan sports mainly run are footwear, clothing and other commodities, not in the scope of the trial. So, according to the law, the company can continue to use these Chinese and English trademarks when producing and selling these products. And even in the case of retrial in the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court is only "decree by the business jury". The final decision of the jury will not be known until the official ruling is issued. Beijing Wei Heng (Shanghai) law firm Ju Qin Yi explained that from a global perspective, in fact, China's Jordan sports victory, the United States lost the lawsuit. "In the vernacular, the Supreme Court gave the American Jordan a face and gave them a consolation prize without practical significance."

According to Ju Qin's statement, technically, the Jordan company in the United States has gone through all the proceedings, without the possibility of appealing or appealing again, which means that the whole lawsuit lawsuit has come to an end.

The war of words continues.

In terms of public opinion, the factions of both sides in the industry and the Internet are very clear.

On the one hand, scolding the Chinese Jordan sports is "unscrupulous businessmen" and "no business ethics". Because in the final analysis, when people mention Jordan, people still think of flying men. At first, the naming method of "edge ball" with "lucky luck" is now regarded as "original sin".

"In fact, China's Jordan also wants to spend money on the United States (company), and it is estimated that the conditions can not be accepted and give up before it comes to litigation." Yang Dayun, President of Cci Capital Ltd, believes that "this process is against Jordan in China, and I believe that Jordan will not give up."

"If this case is not rejected, then the trump suit and Obama casual wear will probably fill the market like Jordan sports, and China's international influence on intellectual property protection will deteriorate." Michael Zhang, director of the US extreme sports goods brand, pointed out.

The other is that although initially, maybe they are related, but with the development of more than 20 years, China's Jordan has gone out of its own way. Looking back, this has nothing to do with the regional business climate. Jordan, a sports company located in Jinjiang, is known as a place without billboards. A local businessman in Jinjiang told reporters that the names of the companies there were very "meaningful", such as: fidelity (Fu Shida), Henry's (Henry Dali), Meck (Markor). Jokingly, she said that enterprises like this had "Jinjiang characteristics", which meant that after 80 years of Jinjiang, there was no culture for the development of desire, at that time, and no copy could be found in the country. "Most of them are small businesses, and many of them are dead in the ebb tide. It's not so great to make Jordan so famous. She stressed that Jordan did not come out in a day, but accumulated for more than 20 years. For the judgement of the court, Jordan himself replied the atmosphere: "I am very pleased to see that the Supreme People's Court recognized my right to protect his name. Chinese consumers have the right to know that Jordan sports and its products have nothing to do with me. Nothing is more important than protecting one's name. The decision highlights the importance of this principle. I respect Chinese laws. "

Good news, bad news.

Jordan Eric Tian, a former marketing manager of the brand, once told reporters that in China, 65% of Jordan's sales benefited from those who regarded it as a fashion brand, and only 35% of consumers valued the performance of shoes. Nike spokesman declined to confirm this figure, but there was no rebuttal. )

The ideal target customers of the brand, usually men who are twenty years old, who are obsessed with basketball and play professional basketball or college basketball teams, can recall the highlight of Michael Jordan's career: he defeated the Utah jazz in 1998 to win the NBA finals or his victory against Nicks.

But most Chinese consumers are too young. They do not remember those moments. They will not repeat these pictures every few weeks in the sports center. "They never really saw Jordan's game," Tian said.

Such a view has also been recognized by CEO, a sports consulting firm, Jordan. For many post-90s and 00 consumers, he is a past tense. He is not a basketball star in this era.

Now the thousand yuan shoes you see on its official website are not the targets of those crazy collectors. Those stars can pedal on rare items of limited grade. Back to the beginning of this article, you know, in China, buying a pair of Jordan basketball shoes means that you have to pay a high price. At first, the shoes in mainland China only cost about 100 dollars, but their classic prices soon surpassed 500 dollars.

Matt Powell is a veteran sports industry observer. He once described Jordan basketball shoes as a high-end and conspicuous consumer brand.

"Air Jordon is a market segment, it is used by a few collectors, and some black markets have reached eleven thousand pairs. Air Jordon is the crown of Nike series. " Michael Zhang told reporters.

The audience of these people and Jordan sports is obviously two kinds of people. The latter's sales price is in the middle and low end, mostly 100-200 yuan, the main sales market in 3, 4, 5 line cities. According to Zhang Qing, Jordan sports is currently in the second echelon of domestic sporting goods companies, with sales of about 20-30 yuan a year.

Apart from infringement or not, from the perspective of pure business, after the mass media exposure, the bystander of the consumer market began to realize which one was exactly what it was and how it came back, and then finally made a rational judgement, and then pursued the star to buy the expensive one, while the one who wanted to make the price performance was to buy the cheap one, but also did not show a sense of superiority. The latter was just a local Fujian brand, just like XTEP, PEAK and 361 degrees.

In addition, yesterday's decision is good news for China's Jordan sports. The company announced the initial public offering prospectus in November 2011, seeking to issue 112 million 500 thousand yuan stock on the Shanghai stock exchange and go public. But several months later, it was prosecuted by the US and fell into a long-term lawsuit company. In 2014, although Jordan sports had passed, but still did not get approval, at that time, the explanation given by the SFC was due to a major pending lawsuit, so it was limited. After the elimination of relevant factors and other related factors, the follow-up work can be carried out according to the procedures.

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