Jordan Jordan ** hot discussion of corporate "brand original sin"

Above: Jordan Sports "infringement" lyrical trend

The netizens opinion clustering data shows that: On March 1, 2012, the Public Opinion Center of China's listed companies randomly selected 400 relevant netizen reviews on Sina and Tencent's Weibo platform, and conducted a cluster analysis of netizens' views as shown above.

The arrival will always come. A “Football Jordan” detonated by international basketball superstar Michael Jordan quickly pushed forward the public view of Jordan Sports Co., Ltd. in Jinjiang, Fujian. This company, which specializes in producing sportswear and footwear, has just passed the IPO application in November last year and is on the eve of its listing.

On the early morning of February 23, 2012, Michael Jordan announced through the Associated Press that he had filed a lawsuit against Jordan Sports in a certain Chinese court, accusing Jordan Sports of infringing his rightful name and misleading Chinese consumers. At the same time, another battle for the rights to Apple's trademark iPad iPad is in full swing, and the case of Hermès' trademark in China has also been entangled.

"Airmen's prosecution + eve of listing + trademark melee", Jordan Sports also has a variety of outstanding genes to become a commercial drama "male number one".

Deeply caught up in the whirlpool According to the monitoring of the public information center of Chinese listed companies, after the announcement of the indictment by Michael Jordan in the early morning of February 23, CCTV host Ruan Chenggang released “Weibo Jordan, sued China Jordan” at 8:33 in the morning for Sina Weibo. Rapidly caused a large number of retransmissions. As of March 1, the number of retransmissions has reached 3,400 comments.

On the same day, lyrics were widely reported and reprinted on the Internet and paper media. The mainstream media including People's Daily Financial News Times Southern Metropolis Daily Fenghuang Wang Sina Tencent and other domestic media all made follow-up reports. The video of the condemnation recorded in person personally has also made it easy to obtain a total of more than 500,000 hits on YouTube websites such as Youku Potato Iqiyi.

Jordan Sports's sensational response was more rapid. At noon on February 23, it issued a statement on its official website saying that it had not received a complaint from Mr. Michael Jordan. The relevant person in charge of his company also made a statement to the public information center of a Chinese listed company on the same day. Similar expressions. The company’s statement stated that its exclusive rights to registered trademarks enjoyed by Chinese “Jordan” are protected by Chinese law and will actively monitor developments.

However, Jordan's sports statement did not receive much support. SOHO China CEO Zhang Xin said on Weibo, “I always thought that Jordan's sportswear was Jordan's, just like Li Ning did, only to know that Jordan was blaming this sportswear company. It has nothing to do with it.” Huayuan Real Estate (600743 Ren Zhiqiang, Chairman of the Board, said: "Without the ability to use their own abilities to compete in the market, people always want to plunder other people's labor fortunes. It is not smart but stupid." The famous commentator Ma Guangyuan asked: "This case Meaning and value are far greater than those of Apple and Proview. Is Jordan a name? Celebrity names should not be reviewed when they are registered as trademarks?"

The trapeze lawsuit also alerted many overseas media. The Wall Street Journal (blog, Weibo) made a report on the theme of “Jordan Jordan's Coming in China” on the 24th. Its commentary said that this is the latest dispute in China about intellectual property rights. In China, the name Rights and registered trademarks often cause legal disputes. The report expressed expectations for the promotion of China’s intellectual property rights.

The "Business Week" report is full of fire: Jordan's lawsuit will be a test of the Chinese intellectual property system, Microsoft has been fighting for software piracy problems for years, a place where Bill Gates failed to succeed How did Jordan succeed? The article is even tired of China's "notorious" intellectual property.

According to statistics, as of March 1st, the number of reports from online media has reached 3,420, and the number of original microblogs related to the Jordan case has also reached 14,164. Jordan sports fell into the swirl of the media.

Reflect on "Brand Original Sin"

There is no doubt that Jordan Sports’ trademark prosecution case was put into the overall environment of China’s intellectual property protection disputes, giving it more value to explore and interpret. It would be insufficient to become a commercial or even a social hot spot. odd. As for the denunciation of private goods by overseas media, the domestic media carried out more reflections on the “brand original sin” behind the incident.

On February 27th, 21st Century Network released a commentary saying that with the advancement of social civilization and the improvement of the legal system, what the modern society needs is a kind of enterprise with a sense of innocence and social responsibility. If a company becomes a brand, it will inevitably undergo a more rigorous examination. At this time, the original sin will be difficult to shape. Yan Qiang, a columnist at FT Chinese, also pointed out that “brand original sin” will cause the brand itself to pay a heavy price sooner or later. Even if Jordan Sports wins the lawsuit, the corporate brand will still suffer a huge blow.

What is certain is that Jordan Sports has grown from a small factory in Jinjiang, established in 1984, to a publicly-traded company with a sales income of 3 billion yuan. It is by no means merely a clever trade mark. The test and baptism of the market in the past 30 years have brought together the hardships and wisdom of many Chinese private entrepreneurs.

However, during the savage growth of domestic enterprises, it became common for large-scale hitchhikers to take advantage of the phenomenon of chickens laying eggs, including the trademark “cottage” of the King of Adi, Kobe’s Iverson brand, and the predecessor of 361 degrees was Buick, which was avoided in 2004. U.S. General Motors changed its name to 361 degrees after a trademark dispute. The “original brand sin” accumulated by the company at the initial stage for short-cuts will inevitably face social pressure and legal pressure after the company has grown stronger.

Therefore, judging from the many cases of trademark litigation that have occurred continuously in the country at the moment, on the one hand, companies need to speed up the overseas brand registration and protect the intangible assets of enterprises in the strategy of internationalization. On the other hand, the company's brand is based on the consumer's recognition and trust, behind the trust is the real enterprise innovation and excellent products. In addition to real products, current enterprises should pay more attention to social responsibility and business ethics.