On March 4th, 2020, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) rendered a decision that canceled the disputed trademark “乔丹+silhouette figure” No. 6020578 (Class 25) based on Michael Jordan’s name right. This is the last one of the 68 administrative cases before the SPC that concerns trademarks registered by Qiaodan Sports Co since 2012. The decisions of the 68 cases can be summarized as follow:

The trademarks registered more than 5 years, including the Chinese character “乔丹”, the "silhouette figure" and “QIAODAN/qiaodan” remained valid.

The registration of the "silhouette figure" and the phonetic alphabet “QIAODAN/qiaodan” were found not to prejudice Michael Jordan’s portraiture right and the name right, respectively.

However, Michael Jordan successfully invalidated the aforesaid trademark No. 6020578 and other three Chinese characters “乔丹” trademarks, in which the SPC affirmed Michael Jordan's name right has been prejudiced.

So, the battlefield has now gone back to the Shanghai Second Intermediate People's Court, where a civil proceeding launched by Michael Jordan against Qiaodan Sports’ use his name is still pending. We will see whether Michael Jordan can stop this use and/or obtain the damages.

Contributed by: Wen Cui