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Brand name battles
Those who like to play with words are clever, or consider themselves clever. Playing with word in trademark registration , however, might bring you trouble or even a lawsuit.
Us basketball legend Michael Jordan filed a lawsuit against Chinese company Qiaodan sports last week for unauthorized use of his name. The company denied the accusation.
We just use a Chinese translation of a common foreign family name and it cannot be identified with Michael Jordan, said Hou Lihong, the companys public relations manager.
Jordan and his lawyer are waiting for the courts reply. But experts have said Jordans lawsuit may be difficult to win.
Chinas law states that a trademark shall not conflict with any prior right acquired by another person. The first to use is a globally recognized principle.
In this sense, Qiaodan sports use of the name is legal in china
But the Chinese companys actions may constitute an act of unfair competition, said Fu Minrong, a lawyer of Xinwenhui Law Firm in Shanghai, because company profits from making connections between its brand and Michael Jordan.
A marketing institute based in Shanghai surveyed 400 young people in 2009. About 90 percent of respondents thought Qiaodan sports belong to Michael Jordan, the Beijing Daily reported.
No winner
Even if Jordan loses the lawsuit, Chinese brands such as Qiaodan are not winner either.
The case reflects a big problem for Chinese brands-copycatting, commented the Beijing Business Today.
At first, such brands would feel happy for free boarding (benefiting from the popularity of products or brands they copycat), commented the newspaper. When they are influential and rich enough to get rid of the stigma, theyll find it too hard.
Critics point out that Qiaodan sports reputation and sales would receive a big blow, as customers are unwilling to be labeled as common buyers of copycat goods.
Trademark preemptive registration is a global issue, in some cases, it even has become a tool of business competition.
Shaolin temple, for instance, found in 2004 that more than 1000 brands containing Shaolin had been registered without the approval of the temple in the US Japan and Europe
To deal with that, the temple set up the Henan Shaolin Temple Industrial Development Co, to protect the temples intellectual property rights, Xinhua news agency reported.
The company has registered about 100 Shaolin-related brands in China and has applied to register Shaolin brands in over 100 countries, Xinhua said.
Companies with a global vision are fully aware of the importance of trademarks.
Although Facebook is inaccessible on the Chinese mainland, it has registered two Chinese trademarks in 2011 and an English trademark in 2007.
