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Apr. 9 (NBD) -- After eight years of repeated litigations, NBA legend Michael Jordan has partly won the trademark disputes with China's sportswear brand Qiaodan Sports.

The lawsuits began in 2012 with a focus on the Chinese name of Qiaodan, which represents the widely accepted Chinese translation of "Jordan". "Qiaodan" is the Romanization, or Pinyin form, of that Chinese name. 

According to the court document published online on Wednesday, the Supreme People's Court overruled previous court decisions on Jordan V.S. Qiaodan Sports which ruled in favor of the latter, and decided that Qiaodan Sports' No.6020578 trademark, which is a combination of Jordan's Chinese translation and a silhouette logo of a basketball player, should be nullified.

The Court held that Qiaodan Sports applied for the trademark while knowing the far-reaching and long time fame of Michael Jordan in China, and the trademark could mislead the public to associate Qiaodan-branded products to the NBA star.

However, the court decision only applies to one trademark, while Michael Jordan had sued Qiaodan for 78 trademarks in 2012. According to the response Qiaodan Sports issued on Wednesday, the sportswear maker has won lawsuits for 74 of trademarks involved, and the latest judgment will have no impact on the company's operation.

Over the years, Qiaodan Sports has registered over 200 trademarks that either contain "Qiaodan" or its Chinese counterparts, National Business Daily (NBD) found from the database of the National Intellectual Property Administration. 

"It would be hard for Michael Jordan to take them all down," Zhao Jin, a lawyer with Huiye Law Firm, told NBD, adding that the Pinyin form, in particular, will be difficult to annul because it does not necessarily reflect Jordan's Chinese name.

Though the latest ruling will not have significant impact on Qiaodan Sports, but the lengthy lawsuits have impeded its way to initial public offering, which passed regulatory review in November of 2011 but never took place.

According to a press conference on November 28, 2014, the China Securities Regulatory Commission explained that the stalled IPO was due to Qiaodan Sports' "major pending lawsuits".

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn