Qiaodan Sports, a Chinese sportswear company, recently lost three of its registered trademark in a lawsuit against American famous basketball star Michael Jordan. The three revoked trademarks are demonstrated as “乔丹”, literally using Jordan’s Chinese name in Chinese characters, covering a wide range of products such as sports clothing, beverages and even Christmas tree decorations. However this ruling is widely considered only a partial victory for Michael Jordan, since his revocation requests for other disputed trademarks designed as “qiaodan”, Jordan’s Chinese name in Pinyin, were declined by the Supreme Court of People’s Republic of China.
The reason behind the ruling is that registering “乔丹” as a trademark without the acknowledgement and approval of Michael Jordan constitutes malicious preemptive registration due to the infringement of Jordan’s right to his personal name. The significance lies in the recognition of the connection between Michael Jordan and his non-legal Chinese name written in Chinese characters. According to the ruling, the existing evidence is sufficient to prove that “乔丹” has a high visibility in China: the relevant public usually uses it to refer to Michael Jordan, and there is a stable connection between “乔丹” and “NBA star Michael Jordan”. However, the court did not find such a connection between “qiaodan” and Michael Jordan.
The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is coming into effect on May 25th, 2018. The Regulation will supersede the Directive 95/46/EC. It aims to unify the EU data protection legislations and strengthen EU’s data protection to meet the new privacy challenges brought by the development of digital technologies. GDPR will have significant impact on China’s enterprises that target the European market. Take the 
On the basis of the conflict between United Vansen International Sports Co. Ltd and soccer club ADO The Hague, we will take a closer look at the Dutch so-called survey procedure at the Enterprise Division of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal and the court’s ruling in this case.
In short – First geographical indication for a manufactured product: the consequences of the Laguiole case
Intellectual Property intensive industries in the European Union are well alive and have a growing importance for the economy. This is the general conclusion of a report written by the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office), along with the EPO (European Patent Office), and published in October 2016. This report, based on research and surveys completed over a period stretching from 2011 to 2013, follows a previous one based on the 2008-2010 period.
Gucci vs Guess
Today on the 28th of November, the UK government confirmed it will proceed with its preparations to ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement.
On September 3rd 2016, the twenty-second meeting of The National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee voted for the decision to amend the law on foreign-funded enterprises (FFE), which consist of domestic wholly foreign owned enterprises and Sino-foreign joint ventures.
Amsterdam Dance Event Panel: “
After taking a hit through the financial crisis, the global M&A activity has been experiencing a consistent growth during the past five years. With 2015 being a record year marked with exceptionally large transactions, the market seems to be continuously confident. Activists nowadays are relying more and more on cross-border transactions as a source of value creation.