On December 30, 2020, the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court issued a first-instance verdict on the name rights dispute case between former American professional basketball player Michael Jordan and Jordan Sports Company and Bairen Trading Company. . After trial, the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court held that Jordan Sports Company, knowing that Michael Jordan had a high reputation, still chose the word "Jordan" for trademark registration without authorization, and registered the "Qiaodan" trade name. Accordingly, the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court ruled in accordance with the law that Jordan Sports Company publicly apologized to the plaintiff in newspapers and on the Internet and should compensate the plaintiff for mental damage of RMB 300,000 and compensate the plaintiff for reasonable expenses of RMB 50,000 due to the lawsuit. , and clarify the relationship between the two.

The arbitration result is actually correct, because of obvious infringement, because Jordan Sports also used Michael Jordan’s jersey number, 23, and the Chinese translations of his two sons, Marcus Jordan and Jeff. Lee? The Trademark Law stipulates that the statute of limitations for trademark disputes is 5 years. This company has been operating for 20 years, which has obviously exceeded the statute of limitations. The only way to do this is to publicly clarify the relationship between the two. In this case, the plaintiff's compensation request was limited to mental damage and did not claim economic losses, so the amount of 350,000 was within a reasonable range.

You must know that people who liked basketball at that time, and even people who liked sports, knew that Jordan refers to the famous basketball player Michael Jordan, who is known as the flying man. Jordan Sports Company also forcibly registered as a trademark and operated the company for 20 years, making the brand a household name, with more than 5,000 stores, more than 80,000 employees, and its best annual revenue exceeding 3 billion. This credit must be attributed to Michael Jordan. Even now, if you look for someone with Jordan's logo and ask: Who is this person? ?Everyone will definitely answer "Jordan", and sports fans may answer "Michael Jordan" or "Air Jordan". This shows that the business strategy of Jordan Sports Company is to sell sports products under the name of Michael Jordan.

Although the final verdict was that Michael Jordan won the lawsuit, it could not prevent Jordan Sports from continuing to use the name and trademark, and the celebrity effect brought by this continued to play its role. Even if the verdict is against Jordan and his company, they have to declare that they have nothing to do with Michael Jordan, because the name Jordan has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. This is the name of a generation of flying stars, and many people who follow the case must not know who Jordan is! I hope that more companies and enterprises in society can operate with integrity and stop skirting around.