Michael Jordan has lost the lawsuit he had filed in the Chinese courts against Qiaodan Sports for using a name and images similar to his own Jordan brand with Nike. The former Chicago Bulls basketball player is known in China as “Qiaodan,” a Chinese version of his name. “Qiaodan” is the pinyin translation of “Jordan” in Chinese - Pinyin is the official phonetic system in China for transcribing the Mandarin pronunciations of Chinese characters into the Latin alphabet. This is precisely the name, written in two ideograms, adopted by Qiaodan Sports, a sports apparel and shoes group based in the eastern province of Fujian. In addition, Qiaodan products feature the outline of a basketball player at full stretch which is similar to the logo used by Nike to promote the Air Jordan shoes. After Chinese authorities and a lower court denied Jordan's request, the former basketball player appealed to the Beijing Higher People's Court, which has also rejected his claims. The Beijing Court of Appeals stated that the name “Jordan” is commonplace enough to be able to be used freely. Regarding the logo, the court said it is “very difficult” for Chinese consumers to identify Michael Jordan in the small outline of a faceless basketball player that can be found on Qiaodan products.

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