商标纠纷增加的背后

Currently, the trademark dispute between Proview and Apple is still ongoing. Proview claims ownership of the iPad name, while Apple says it bought the rights to the name in China and other countries in 2009.

Last week, a court session over the dispute opened in Shanghai. The court ruled in favor of Shenzen Proview Technology regarding the use of the iPad name, and called for distributors to stop selling iPads in China; which may be rather difficult to enforce. Proview also plans to petition China's customs agency to block the import and export of Apple branded iPads.

While an end to this dispute still seems rather distant, US basketball legend Michael Jordan filed his own lawsuit against Chinese company Qiaodan Sports on February 23rd. He accused the company, based in east China's Fujian province, of building its business around his name in Chinese and his jersey number without his permission. The firm denies the accusation.

The company's trademark, Qiaodan, is the Chinese version for Jordan and its logo features a flying silhouette of the former Chicago Bulls superstar. A lawyer, Yao Jing, shares her opinion on the case.

"The trademark holder in Fujian province has been successfully registered over the trademark in 2002, so there is no infringement in using the trademark Qiaodan."

Regardless of these trademark disputes, speculative entrepreneurs in China are looking to cash in on the meteoric rise to stardom of basketball player Jeremy Lin.

The name of the overnight sensation has already been registered as a trademark by a Chinese businesswoman in 2010. The trademark is now said by Forbes magazine to be worth around 100 million yuan or about 16 million US dollars. However, Yu Minjie, owner of a sporting goods company based in East China's Jiangsu province, spent less than 5,000 yuan when she registered "Jeremy S.H.L." as a trademark after watching Lin's performance in a televised NBA game. S.H.L stands for Lin Shuhao, Lin's Chinese name.

However, many people ask if such examples of speculative registration are legal. Lawyer Yao Jing sheds light on this topic:

"When a trademark is registered, it's expected to be used. According to the Trademark Law of China, if a trademark is registered but is not used for naming any product within three years after its registration, the registration will be cancelled."

Yao Jing adds that a number of international brands do not pay attention to trademark registration within China; hence, they are not under the protection of the Trademark Law of China.

"As with the iPad case, Apple brings their products to China for sale, without registering their trademark in China. In such cases, they won't receive protection in China, no matter how popular your products are among customers in other places around the world."

As demonstrated by recent cases regarding trademark disputes, a number of experts believe that Chinese people are more aware of intellectual property rights compared to several years ago.

For CRI, I am Zhang Wan.