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Feynman LIANG
Patent & Trademark Attorney
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Published on April 10, 2020
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The Supreme Court of P. R. China (“the Supreme Court”) recently issued a retrial judgement, deciding that the mark No. 6020578 “乔丹 & Device” (pronounce as “Qiao Dan”, which is the official translation of “Jordan” in China) in class 25 for clothes, shoes etc. should be cancelled. The judgement marks a significant victory of Michael Jordan in enforcing its right in China.
More than 8 years ago, upon being aware of existence of the products with the mark “乔丹” (“Qiao Dan” as the official translation of “Jordan”) in the market, Air Jordan initiated the trademark cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (“TRAB”) on the ground of conflicting with right of name of Michael Jordan. The unsatisfied decision of TRAB was appealed to Beijing No.1 Intermediate People’s Court (1st instance) and further to Beijing Higher People’s Court (2nd instance).
TRAB, the 1st instance court and the 2nd instance court disagreed with Michael Jordan and decided that the registration was valid. Michael Jordan filed a petition before the Supreme People’s Court of P. R. China for retrial of the case. Pursuant to Civil Litigation Law of P. R. China, the 2nd instance should be the final instance. Any party of the proceedings may, within 6 months after the final judgement becomes valid, petitions for retrial before the upper level court if he/she/it believes there is error in the judgement. Only under very limited circumstances the Supreme Court will take up the retrial case. In this case, the Supreme Court eventually decided that there were errors in findings of facts and application of law in the decision/judgement of TRAB proceedings, the 1st instance and the 2nd instance. It was decided by the Supreme Court that the mark in dispute should be cancelled.
This is a major success for Michael Jordan, because the cancelled mark designates the core competing products of clothes and shoes. In 2016, the mark “乔丹” (pronounce as “Qiao”) No. 6020569 owned by the same registrant for class 28, which is for less important goods (port activity equipment, swimming pool (for entertainment), roller skates), was successfully cancelled.
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