Photo/Tuchong

Oct. 18 (NBD) -- The lawsuit brought by U.S. former basketball player Michael Jordan against Chinese sportswear brand Qiaodan Sports that lasted for as long as seven years finally came to an end. 

On Wednesday, China's supreme court ruled that Qiaodan Sports' logo doesn't infringe on the portrait rights of Michael Jordan.

Qiaodan, pronounced "chee-ow-dan", is a Mandarin transliteration of Jordan. The Chinese brand registered the trademark of "Danqiao" in 1991 and changed its name to the Qiaodan Sports in 2000. The present trademark and logo are different from but bear certain resemblance to Air Jordan, a brand under Nike that was granted authorization by Jordan himself.

In 2012, Jordan's side sued Qiaodan Sports and applied to cancel the disputed trademark, claiming it damaged his right of personal name. But China's trademark authority rejected Jordan's requirement twice in the year, declaring the sportswear company's name didn't refer to Michael Jordan.

In 2015, the basketball big name filed a lawsuit again. A year later, China's top court retreated the verdict of trademark authority made earlier.

National Business Daily noticed that in 2018, Qiaodan Sports countersued Nike, accusing the latter of unauthorizedly using the former's trademark to promote products and causing unfair competition, and asked a compensation of 300,000 yuan (42,438.8 U.S. dollars). Adjudication of the case was not made public.

The long-lasting battle had baffled the IPO plan of Qiaodan Sports. In 2011, the sportswear company's IPO application was approved. At the time, it was expected to be the first Chinese sports apparel brand to debut on the A-share market. However, the float was finally suspended due to the dispute over trademarks. Qiaodan Sports again put the IPO on agenda in 2016 and is now waiting for the approval.

Having realized the difficulties clouding the trademark issue, Qiandan Sports has started to make a change about its logo and name. Previous report said that part of the firm's stores already begun highlighting "QDSPORTS" or "BEYOND YOURSELF" while weakening "Qiaodan Sports". 

By making efforts to shake off the negative impact of trademark dispute, the company is aimed to grab a bigger share in China's promising sports market.

According to a plan initiated by China's authority, China's total sports consumption is expected to reach 1.5 trillion yuan (212.2 billion U.S. dollars). Amid the vast market is also the challenge from those top sports brands in the domestic market such as Adidas, Li-Ning, Nike, ect.

Statistics compiled by Yunguan Consulting showcased that in terms of the sales volume on Tmall last April, Alibaba's shopping platform, Adidas ranked first with a market share of 18.68 percent, and was followed by Li-Ning and Nike, while Qiaodan Sports was not among the top ten.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn