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A pedestrian passes a branch of Chinese sportswear shop Qiaodan Sports in Shanghai on Thursday. Retired NBA superstar Michael Jordan announced that he has filed a lawsuit in China against Qiaodan Sports Company Limited over unauthorized use of his name.
BEIJING – Between Linsanity and Apple’s iPad trademark case, it seems like the only things on people’s minds in China right now are basketball and trademarks.
Leave it to “His Airness” to elevate that talk to another level.
Earlier today, NBA legend Michael Jordan issued a statement announcing that he has filed a lawsuit in Chinese court against Qiaodan Sports Company Ltd., charging the company with using his name and playing number without permission.
“A Chinese sports company has chosen to build a Chinese business off my Chinese name without my permission,” said Jordan in a video statement posted on a special website announcing the suit. "It pains me to see someone misrepresent my identity.”
“Qiaodan” is a transliteration of the name Jordan has gone by in China since he and the NBA took China by storm in the ‘80s and ‘90s, transforming the mainland into a nation of basketball diehards.
“It is deeply disappointing to see a company build a business off my Chinese name without my permission, use the number 23 and even attempt to use the names of my children,” Jordan said, referring to Qiaodan’s recent bid to trademark the name of his children in China. He continued by saying, “I am taking this action to preserve ownership of my name and my brand.”
Jordan’s announcement is a blow to Qiaodan, a Chinese sportswear and footwear manufacturer that has its roots in the 1980s but found tremendous financial success when it changed its name to Jordan’s Chinese moniker in 2000.
Company: Lots of people named 'Jordan'
Since that time, Qiaodan has borrowed heavily from the Jordan mystique to drive sales in China. His iconic number 23 is on much of their sportswear and advertisements and equipment often sport a logo which greatly resembles Nike’s iconic “Jumpman” logo, which accompanies virtually all of Jordan’s branded gear.
Still, the company denies any connection to the NBA legend and argues any resemblance is coincidental.
Speaking to Chinese media today, a spokesman for the company brazenly claimed, “There is no connection, 23 is just a number like $23 or $230 dollars… I don’t think there is a problem at all here.”
He continued by saying Qiaodan goes to great lengths to advertise that the company was a “China national brand” and that there was no need to tell every customer that they are not associated with Jordan since their brand is already unique to the mainland.
Bob Leverone / AP
Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan smiles as he announces a cash donation to the Second Harvest Food Bank on Feb. 20 in Charlotte, N.C.
“Not everyone will think this is misleading,” said the spokesman. “There are so many Jordans besides the basketball player – there are many other celebrities both in the U.S. and worldwide called Jordan.”
A bold claim by Qiaodan, but one that is seemingly refuted by a 2009 survey conducted by a Shanghai marketing company. They found that 90 percent of 400 young people polled in China’s small cities believed Qiaodan Sports was Michael Jordan’s own brand.
“We live in a competitive marketplace, and Chinese consumers, like anyone else, have a huge amount of choice when it comes to buying clothing, shoes and other merchandise,” said Jordan, “I think they deserve to know what they are buying.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Nike, who markets the “Jordan” brand in China under its English name, which the Oregon-based company registered in China in 1993. It failed, though, to register the Chinese name, allowing Qiaodan to take it in 1998. Attempts by Nike to legally halt Qiaodan from selling under that name were blocked by the Chinese government’s state trademark office
Subsequently, one can walk into a sports store here in China and often find Nike’s official Jordan line of sportswear on sale just a few racks down from Qiaodan’s brand.
Why now?
In lieu of Nike’s previous experience in attempting to protect its trademark and the fact that Jordan himself has waited 11 years to make his first high profile attempt to stop Qiaodan, the question is: “Why now?”
The answer to that may be found in two recent legal decisions involving two other NBA players.
Stan Abrams of the invaluable China legal and business blog, China Hearsay, wrote about two cases involving Chinese basketball stars – Yi Jianlian and Yao Ming – and the parallels between their two trademark cases and the suit Jordan is bringing against Qiaodan.
In the Yi Jianlian case, a company unaffiliated with the player registered for the trademark of his name in 2005. Yi filed a complaint with the Chinese Trademark Review and Adjudication Board and won in 2009; he also won a subsequent appeal in 2010.
Yao Ming faced a similar issue when he filed suit and won against another Chinese sporting goods company, Wuhan Yunhe, which had attempted to trademark a name associated with the former NBA superstar.
In both cases, lawyers for the players cited Article 31 of Chinese Trademark Law which states: "An application for the registration of a trademark shall not create any prejudice to the prior right of another person, nor unfair means be used to pre-emptively register the trademark of some reputation another person has used.”
Perhaps seeing the trademark law now being more stringently enforced in cases closely paralleling his own, and already knowing the terrific economic potential for himself and his brand in China, Jordan must have seen this as the time to make a definitive move against Qiaodan.
Considering Nike’s failed injunction and the fact that Qiaodan is a purely homegrown Chinese company – a fact that should not be underestimated - Qiaodan must have appeared frustratingly untouchable to Jordan, who touched on fairness in his statement.
“When I was a former player, I played within the rules, I played off of honesty,” said Jordan. “Today, even in business, honesty is something that I truly, truly hold as a high value, and I stay within the guidelines.”
While the lawsuit is primarily for control of his Chinese name in China, Jordan has pledged that any money earned in the lawsuit will be “invested in growing the sport in China.”
“No one should lose control of their own name; China recognizes that for everyone. It’s not about the money; it’s about principle—protecting my identity and my name.”
One person who should take heed of Jordan’s words? Current NBA phenom, Jeremy Lin, whose Chinese name was registered by a Chinese company back in 2010.
Leave a Comment:
I pretty sure reading these camments have left me in disgust.. To all the hipocrites ask yourself one question. if you had a trade marked brand that china was using with out your permission, you wouldnt want to sue them? all he is doin is making a point that he will persue legally to make sure his name is true and not fake.
also on the point made of him needing to be US manufactured is rediculous in so many aspects. first being "jordan" is not his company but his name that is trademarked. It is owned by Nike wich has been outsourcing from china since the very start. Now bringing that up what American co. is fully american? your american car? wrong, your components are from china. your clothes? wrong they are printed and sold in america but the material is still bought from china. and the list goes on....
MJ is no god but is an sports icon, so dont put him on a pedestal that he does not wish to stand on.
Hooked on Phonics worked for me!!!!
You're never going to stop pirating in Asia. 90% of PC software is pirated. You go into the stores and see that box with the gold seal, which is glued on in the US, but is just scanned and part of the box in Asia. Heh, laughed by A** off when I saw that.
Talk about a greedy a$$ MFer!!!! Damm.....all that your hungry a$$ has, and you still want more...Please!! I hope to hear the rest of your punishment while here in this world....geezzzzz........
You can't blame him for TRYING to protect what SHOULD be rightfully his... GEEZ, you all are acting like YOU wouldn't do the SAME EXACT THING! Whether he is successful remains to be seen.
As far as him making products in the USA, remember NIKE owns and is ultimately responsible for all of that, so although the products bear his name NIKE is the controlling entity there. TRY to get them to do something that would end up with smaller profits!
Good for you Michael. Glad we found someone with some nerve. The bought and sold congress could stop this but then who would be their daddy. Mitch McConnell is the biggest China Whore in the U. S.
To D-1129384
I get some racist overtones from the comments you have made. If it were a white player would you have said the same thing. Michael Jordon has done so much for America. Do you know how much money countries pay for television rights to these basketball games, all wanting to see Michael when he was in his day. Not to mention that Michael's ancestors built America. America was built on slave labour and is still doing well from the brain drain of blacks from other countries. Not to mention that 90% of the resources of Michael's home continent Africa are used to benefit America and Europe. (This will soon change). So watch your attitudes and thank God for black people. The founding Fathers could not even grow food to survive here or anywhere. So watch your words son/daughter. And God bless you if you are black and making such foolish statements.
so you want to pay 100 dollars for a shirt made in America under a lousey union contract.
If i owned a company, where the employees were deciding to vote in a union. i would immediately close the plant down, and move it to a non union area. that would possibly be china, India, etc...
cheap foriegn labor vs greedy people trying to milk my company...
Only power sports figures have is the power given to them by dipsticks with dollars...
you protohumans were a necessary step on the ladder, granted, but perhaps you could fade and we could advance just a wee tiny bit more?