The National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System shows that Qiaodan Sports Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Qiaodan Sports”) changed its name on January 12 and changed its name to Zhongqiao Sports Co., Ltd.
After several years of fighting for the “Jordan” trademark rights with American basketball star Michael Jordan, on December 30, 2020, Shanghai Second Intermediate People’s The court issued the first-instance judgment in the case of Michael Jordan v. Jordan Sports and Bairen Trading Company over the name rights dispute, ruling that Jordan Sports should stop using the “Jordan” trade name in its corporate name and stop using trademarks involving “Jordan”.
Being involved in lawsuits for 9 years due to the use of “Qiaodan”
Qiaodan Sports was born in Jinjiang, Fujian, and its predecessor was established in 1984 The “Fujian Province Jinjiang Chendai Xibian Daily Necessities No. 2 Factory” was renamed “Qiaodan Sports Co., Ltd.” in 2000, using “Qiaodan” as the corporate name. Since 1997, Qiaodan Sports has registered a series of trademarks related to “Jordan”, covering clothing, shoes and hats, fitness equipment, leather goods, advertising sales, etc.
Since then, Jordan Sports’ performance has grown rapidly, especially in 2003, when its operating performance increased by 600%. At that time, the American basketball star Michael Jordan was also very popular on the court and was also the idol of many young people in our country.
In fact, the corporate name of Jordan Sports has always been controversial.
Zero Point Investigation Company completed two investigation reports in 2012. The survey results show that among the respondents who purchased Jordan Sports brand products at that time, 93.5% and 78.1% respectively believed that Michael Jordan was related to “Qiaodan Sports”. Among them, Michael Jordan was considered to be “Qiaodan Sports”. Spokesperson” had the most respondents.
Relying on the “edge ball” approach, Jordan Sports was very popular at the time and applied for listing for the first time in 2011.
However, just before the listing, in 2012, the famous NBA star “Flying Man” Michael Jordan filed a complaint and lawsuit with the relevant competent authorities and judicial institutions in my country. It was only then that many consumers suddenly realized that “Qiaodan Sports” had nothing to do with the star Michael Jordan himself.
In 2012, Michael Jordan submitted a request to the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the China State Administration for Industry and Commerce to revoke 78 Jordan Sports trademarks. After the relevant registered trademark application was rejected, an administrative lawsuit was filed with the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court. In the same year, Michael Jordan took Qiaodan Sports to court, accusing Qiaodan Sports of infringing on his right to name.
However, the first instance of the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court in 2014 and the second instance of the Beijing Higher People’s Court in 2015 were all based on Michael Jordan’s request to cancel the controversial trademark of Jordan Sports. There was insufficient basis and Michael Jordan lost the case.
At the end of 2015, the Supreme People’s Court conducted a retrial review of the Jordan Sports series of cases. In 2020, the Supreme People’s Court made a final judgment, revoking the previous judgments of the Beijing Higher People’s Court and the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, and revoking the “Jordan and Picture” trademark dispute ruling. Finally, the final judgment of the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate Court on December 30, 2020 was announced.
During the protracted and ups and downs of litigation, Jordan Sports’ road to listing was also stranded.
There is a risk of getting into trouble by “playing the ball”
In fact, depending on the times and the economy at that time, Regarding environmental impact, in the past few decades, many clothing brands have adopted the approach of “following stars” or “following famous brands” similar to Jordan Sports, such as “Adidas”, “New Balance”, “Valentino”, etc. , these brands that rely on shortcuts have indeed reaped a lot of dividends in a certain period of time.
In addition, in the eyes of some people in the industry, in addition to being a “near star”, there may be another reason why the Ding Guoxiong family decided to choose “Jordan” at that time. At that time, the “boss” of my country’s sports brands was “Li Ning” founded in 1991. It was founded and named by Li Ning, a famous Chinese athlete at that time. In addition, compared with other Jinjiang sports brands, such as Anta, Guirenniao, Hongxing Erke, etc., the name “Jordan” is obviously more resounding.
Most sports brands of that era were racking their brains to expand their brand awareness. In 1999, Anta founder Ding Shizhong invested a lot of money to sign the world table tennis champion Kong Linghui, and placed ads on CCTV, launching the “sports star + CCTV advertising” marketing model for the first time, attracting a number of Jinjiang brands to imitate. Xtep and Del Hui also signed Nicholas Tse and Jay Chou successively.
Let the brand name be remembered by consumers. This is the biggest appeal of Jinjiang sports brand at the beginning of its concept, and Jordan Sports will naturally be no exception.
Public information shows that from January 1, 2000 to May 18, 2004, in order to build up the brand, Qiaodan Sports invested a total of 3 months in advertising expenses, sports sponsorship and public welfare undertakings. 53.17 million yuan. By 2010, Jordan Sports’ annual advertising investment on CCTV reached nearly 70 million yuan.
During this period, Jordan Sports’ business performance was also at its peak. The prospectus published by Jordan Sports in 2011 shows that in 2008…��~In 2010, the company’s revenue was 1.158 billion yuan, 2.316 billion yuan and 2.927 billion yuan respectively.
Perhaps in the previous “confrontations” with Michael Jordan, Jordan Sports did not lose so completely, but what we have to admit is that after this time After losing the trademark infringement case with a wide impact, Jordan Sports’ forced name change will have a big impact on the development of the brand. On the one hand, consumers will have a greatly reduced impression of a brand that has engaged in “famous brand” behavior, and their desire to consume may be reduced; on the other hand, brands will have to spend a long time and a lot of energy to re-cultivate consumers’ awareness. , the process can be long and difficult.
Where to go after the name change remains to be tested by the market
Another point that needs attention is that for Jordan Sports What brings “trouble” is not only the star Michael Jordan himself, but also the Nike sub-brand Air Jordan behind him.
As early as 1984, when Michael Jordan was still a rising star in the NBA, Nike had a keen eye and created exclusive “Air Jordan” boots for him. In 1997, the Air Jordan brand became independent from Nike and gradually became one of Nike’s important sub-brands. Today, AJ has become the “magic shoe” sought after by young people in our country. On the trendy shopping APP, a pair of AJ1s was once sold for more than 60,000 yuan. Coincidentally, the past few years when Michael Jordan was in litigation with Qiaodan Sports were also the period when Air Jordan’s market share in China continued to expand.
Now, the core brand trademark has been hit hard, which has not only damaged the brand image of Qiaodan Sports, but also made Qiaodan Sports’ nine-year listing plan once again a mystery. During the period when Qiaodan Sports was involved in trademark disputes, the parent companies of domestic sports brands such as Anta, Xtep, and 361° were listed on the market one after another, which undoubtedly made Qiaodan Sports even more passive.
Take Anta, also located in Jinjiang, as an example. Through “buy, buy, buy” and multiple acquisitions, the company has acquired FILA, the parent company of Arc’teryx, etc., and has found a way out. The effective multi-brand strategy has transformed Anta from Jinjiang into Anta around the world. In the first half of 2020, Anta achieved revenue of 14.7 billion yuan. In addition, Li-Ning has also relied on “China Li-Ning” to make a magnificent turn and gain a foothold in the sports fashion brand industry. In the first half of 2020, its revenue reached 6.2 billion yuan.
In contrast, without the support of the capital market, Jordan Sports’ performance growth is relatively limited, which can be described as “average.” Compared with brands such as Anta, Li Ning, and Xtep in the same period, the development of Jordan Sports seems to be lagging behind. The only major move made by Jordan Sports in recent years is to spend 443 million yuan in 2020 to acquire the intellectual property and operating rights of sports brand Umbro in China.
Perhaps in anticipation of the outcome of the lawsuit, in recent times, both the official Jordan Sports online store and offline physical stores have begun the process of “de-Jordanization”. Related graphics The scope of application of trademarks has been significantly weakened. On the official website of Qiaodan Sports, product promotion is mainly based on product name, brand image, etc.
Industry insiders believe that for today’s Zhongqiao Sports, “de-Jordanization” is the first step in reshaping the brand. But whether it will succeed is still unclear. Michael Jordan intercepted the company before, and was chased by Nike’s Air Jordan later. In addition, domestic sports brands are fiercely competing. After the renaming, Jordan Sports still needs to continue on. As for how life is going, I can only feel it. Experience the brand yourself.
At this point, I suddenly remembered that after the name change of Jordan Sports, will the “Jordan Cup” China Sports Equipment Design Competition, which has become quite influential in the country, continue to be held? Or should we also change our name? After all, this competition has been held for more than ten times. </p
