Jordan Sports Trademark Case Lost In The Final Trial

On September 6, the reporter of Beijing business daily learned from the trial information network of Beijing court that the Beijing Intellectual Property Court had made a final judgment on the case of Jordan sports suing four e-commerce trademark infringement cases, and all Jordan sports lost the lawsuit. Industry insiders believe that the loss of the trademark infringement case once again cast a shadow on the prospects of Jordan sports brand remodeling. Jordan sports, which has gone through two listing meetings, can get rid of trademark disputes, achieve sustainable growth and gain recognition in the capital market under the damage of its reputation and popularity.

Trademark disputes lose one after another

According to the trial information network of Beijing court, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court recently made a final judgment on the dispute that Jordan sports sued Amazon and cool buy online and other e-commerce platforms for using the Chinese character "Jordan" in the sale of Jordan Brand sports equipment, and Jordan sports lost all cases.

According to the civil ruling of the second instance, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court held that the goods sold on the above-mentioned e-commerce platforms did not have trademark infringement; the use of the word "Jordan" in the display of goods was not illegal; and searching for "Jordan" showed that air jordan products did not belong to unfair competition.

Previously, the Supreme People's court finally made a final judgment on the legal dispute between Michael Jordan and Jordan sports after eight years of Marathon litigation. Jordan sports has been revoked 25 categories of "Jordan + graphics" trademark, but it still has 74 Jordan trademarks registered for more than five years, among which the Chinese character "Jordan" is retained as the core trademark.

The Beijing Intellectual Property Court said in the judicial basis that Michael Jordan had signed a relevant agreement with Nike as early as 1984, and Nike had the right to use his name. The word "Jordan" is the Chinese translation of the Jordan series of Nike sports shoes, not a trademark.

According to Qiu Baochang, expert of Expert Committee of China Consumer Association and President of E-commerce Law Research Association of Beijing law society, Jordan sports lost the lawsuit, which means that "Jordan" Chinese can only be protected in the field of trademark. Jordan equipment is derived from the authorization of Michael Jordan, and the Chinese characters are legally used by others within the scope of prior rights, Jordan sports exercise its prohibition Power lacks sufficient legitimacy.

Limited use of word trademarks

Once again, the dilemma of Jordan sports brand was highlighted.

Cheng Weixiong's brand management in the future will face a severe test of brand management.

Beijing Business Daily reporters log in to major e-commerce platforms and find that the search results of Air Jordan and Jordan sports products will appear when searching for "Jordan". Only accurate search for "Jordan sports" can avoid the results of Air Jordan.

The Beijing Intellectual Property Court said in the judgment that according to the result of the administrative judgment No. 27 of the Supreme Court of the people's Republic of China (2016), Jordan sports can retain the "Jordan" word trademark because the star Jordan lost this right when he filed a lawsuit over the five-year prosecution period for infringement of the prior right of trademark registration. Nowadays, the state emphasizes to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, such as allowing Jordan sports to expand the use and protection scope of the word "Jordan", which is not conducive to the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of the name owner, and is not conducive to the purification of the trademark registration and use environment.

Cheng Weixiong said that according to the verdict, Jordan sports has lost the basis of restricting the use of the Chinese character "Jordan". Even though Jordan sports still retains the Chinese trademark of "Jordan", it will become a burden for brand communication in the future. For the follow-up action of the losing lawsuit and the use of Jordan sports brand, Beijing Commercial Daily interviewed the relevant person in charge of Jordan sports by email, but as of the reporter's publication, no reply was received.

Brand reconstruction is not easy

How to reshape the brand image is the current Jordan sports need to consider. Lin Youxun, senior director of Jordan sports brand, once said that the related work of brand reconstruction has been gradually carried out. 2020 is the most important year for brand building, and the outside world will see more actions.

Since this year, in addition to giving up the cancelled trademark, Jordan sports has been upgrading its official website and brand promotion, hoping to get rid of the shadow brought by trademark disputes. The image of some Jordan sports stores has changed, and the words "Jordan sports" have been narrowed down, and new words such as "qdsports" or "breyouund yousself" have appeared. In terms of product design, it also highlights the "quality dry" products, and the appearance logo of some clothing is changed to "bun +", "team", "shot" and "your".

In August 2020, Jordan sports announced that it had acquired all business and intellectual property rights of inbao brand in China market to expand its revenue channel. People in the industry think that the bad image of Shanzhai has been eliminated to a certain extent.

Jordan sports, which has been approved for 9 years since November 2011, is still the first company that has passed the IPO examination and yet to be issued. Frequent trademark disputes also leave hidden dangers for its landing in the capital market.

Cheng Weixiong said that after losing the convenience of continuing to use "Jordan", the process of remodeling Jordan sports brand is not easy. Jordan sports must use its own products and ideas to prove the value of the brand is not to rub the heat of American basketball star Michael Jordan. This road may be more difficult than any other brand transformation road. Perhaps after the loss of e-commerce, Jordan's brand image will be completely changed.