Shanghai Second Intermediate People's Court announced on the evening of March 6 that the court has officially accepted the case in which Michael Jordan sues Qiaodan Sports Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Benren Trading Co., Ltd. for infringing rights to a name. This is the first time that a domestic court publicly acknowledges formally accepting this case.
On February 23, basketball superstar Michael Jordan said he had filed a lawsuit with Chinese courts, accusing Qiaodan Sports Co., Ltd. of using his name without authorization.
Jordan wrote in his statement that this lawsuit is not about money. The rights of Chinese consumers should be protected and they shouldn't be misled. Jordan also accused Qiaodan Sports in his statement of using his Chinese name and jersey number 23 without authorization [and even trying to carry out business activities using the names of his children.] In his litigation request, he demands that Qiaodan Sports immediately stop abusing his name and let Chinese consumers know that he has no relationship with Qiaodan Sports.
Shanghai Second Intermediate People's Court also said on the 6th that it will choose a date to publicly hear this case.
According to previous media reports, Beijing Haidian Court once refused to accept this case, citing the reason that Jordan does not have unique specificity in China.
Yesterday evening, Qiaodan Sports responded that it had received the notice of defense from Shanghai Second Intermediate People's Court on March 5, and it has fully entrusted lawyers to handle the matter. Qiaodan Sports has full confidence in safeguarding its legitimate rights and believes that the court will make a fair judgment according to law.
The company has previously stated multiple times that it did not deliberately use the name of Michael Jordan. Qiaodan Sports enjoys exclusive rights to registered trademarks such as "Qiaodan", which are protected by Chinese law.
However, Kang Yi, a partner at JunHe Law Offices, the Chinese agent for Michael Jordan, previously pointed out that the evidence they collected can fully prove that Qiaodan Sports has already established a one-to-one correspondence with Michael Jordan. A third-party survey in 2009 showed that consumers mistakenly thought that Qiaodan Sports was Jordan's own brand.