Jordan'S Trademark Case Is Final: A Generation Of Superstars Recovered Justice In Chinese Courts.

Recently, the Supreme People's court made a ruling on American star Jordan's trademark infringement case of Jordan sports company of China. Jordan's sports company's 6020578 "Jordan + graphics" trademark was removed from twenty-fifth categories of clothing, shoes, hat, socks and other commodities. "Jordan trademark series" finally came to an end.

"Rubbing" the American sports star Jordan so many years of Jordan sports, finally paid a heavy price, and as a generation of basketball superstar Jordan, also in the Chinese court for justice.

The predecessor was Jordan sports in Jinjiang, Fujian, which is the two factory of daily products in Jinjiang. Just over 20 years ago, under the circumstance of imperfect intellectual property protection in China, the shoe factory struck the "Jordan" edge ball and opened the market with the reputation of the then brilliant Jordan. "It is always necessary to return the game." the star has been prosecuting since 2012. The lawsuit has been fought for 8 years, and Jordan sports has missed the IPO time window before and after 2012. In the past 8 years, China's intellectual property rights protection has also entered the fast lane.

In January 14th this year, the highest law issued twenty-second to 24 batches of guiding cases. In 2016, the Supreme Court final trial "Michael Jeffrey Jordan and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce Trademark Review and Adjudication Board, and Jordan sports Limited by Share Ltd" Jordan "trademark dispute administrative dispute case are listed. The supreme law clearly states that the Chinese translations of foreign natural persons are qualified according to law, and can be protected according to the law according to the specific name.

In fact, as early as 2017, the supreme law put the spirit of judgment in the case into the judicial interpretation of trademark authorization, which clearly stated that the right of name can be used as the "prior right" stipulated in the existing trademark law, and can exclude the general principle of "priority of registration" for trademark protection.

This means that the law has put an end to the backward window procedure that deliberately misuses foreign celebrities' registered trademarks, such as "Jordan sports". In the future, Chinese enterprises should put their minds on building their own brands, and no longer expect to rub up with foreign celebrities for marketing. This is conducive to safeguarding the dignity of the rights holders, maintaining fair competition in the market order, and purifying the registration and use of trademarks.

Of course, it is still necessary to see the complexity of intellectual property litigation, especially when Jordan, the former player of the, has a relatively long time to defend her rights. Many Jordan trademarks registered by Jordan before and after 2001 have exceeded the time limit for the cancellation of the application trademark. There are still some disputes about how to deal with these trademark cases.

However, China's increasingly perfect intellectual property protection environment has also given Jordan sports the bitter taste of "poisonous tree fruit", and the value of the "Jordan" trademark still on hand is shrinking. Especially in 2016, 2019 and 2020, the supreme law made the final judgment on the "Jordan series" three times, and declared the original sin of its "celebrity" through the form of judicial decisions, which showed the fairness and seriousness of China's judicial and equal protection of intellectual property rights, so that more consumers could not see clearly that Jordan sports and a generation of basketball superstars had nothing to do with it.

Even if Jordan sports win the "portrait of the basketball hand shadow" lawsuit, Jordan series trademark is also depreciating. Even Jordan sports is adjusting the brand name and logo, such as the words "Jordan sports" has begun to shrink and weaken, emphasizing the use of QDSPORTS and other sub brands. This is the use of judicial policy to force enterprises to go ashore, transform and take the right road.

In recent years, China's national influence and enterprise influence are becoming stronger and stronger. The business and judicial contacts between China and foreign countries are becoming more and more close. For example, in December last year, Bruce Lee's daughter sued "true Kung Fu" to use the icons of Bruce Lee's image, claiming economic losses of 210 million yuan. To a certain extent, this is a good thing.

At present, enhancing the protection of intellectual property rights has become an important measure for China to open wider to the outside world and optimize the business environment. Last year, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the amendment to the trademark law, which increased the illegal cost of trademark infringement and increased the amount of compensation for malicious infringement of exclusive right to trademark to 1 times or more than 5 times. It is also China's increasingly sophisticated intellectual property protection mechanism, attracting more "foreign rights".

It is always late to get out of the mix, which means that the transition is late and the cost is even heavier.