Michael Jordan, China, and Copyright Problems Overseas

The copyright challenge that many companies face in China is illustrated by Qiaodan, a company that makes shoes that look remarkably similar to Nike’s Air Jordans, but are not associated with the sportswear giant or the basketball legend. When Nike expanded its Air Jordan brand to China in the 1990s, it only registered the English version of “Jordan,” leaving a family-owned shoe company abroad to claim “Qiaodan,” the Chinese version of Jordan. Qiaodan now has 6,000 locations across China, and does hundreds of millions of dollars in business annually. Many companies run into this problem, failing to take into account that, while in the U.S. trademarks go to whomever uses first, in most countries – including China – it goes to whomever files first. In 2012 Jordan sued the company, then in 2013 Qiaodan counter-sued, saying the original suit kept them from going public. Ultimately the Beijing High People’s Court ruled against Jordan.