On September 20th 2012, Yao Ming’s litigation against Wuhan Yunhe Big Shark Sporting Goods Co., Ltd. for its infringement on his personality rights and for unfair competition, which draws great attention, received an open trial at Hubei Higher People’s Court. Lawyer Zhang Hong and Lawyer Xu jin of Beijing Janlea Law Firm, as the attorneys of the appellant Yao Ming, attended the open trial. The deliberate infringement dispute case, after one and a half year of trialing, finally received a proper closure. This is the first “celebrity merchandising rights” case that a People’s Court has ever received and made a final judgment upon so far, and Yao Ming became the first natural person protected as an operator by the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, since its implementation the 1993. A milestone in the application of Anti-Unfair Competition Law, this case would be an important guideline for processing similar cases in the future.

After the second-instance trial, Hubei Higher People’s Court ruled as followed: as a public figure, Yao Ming had always maintained a positive social identity. Under such circumstance, the natural person’s name, protected by Anti-Unfair Competition Law, differed from one’s personal rights in a normal sense, and was a business symbol that distinguished different bodies of market. Without the authorization or the license of the owner to such right, no business or individuals should arbitrarily use others’ names, portraits and related symbols for commercial use. Wuhan Yunhe Big Shark Sporting Goods Co., Ltd., as an operator in the market, violated the agreed commercial codes of conduct and betrayed the principle of honesty. Its actions severely harmed the lawful rights of, not only the owner to this right, but also but the consumers. The company should be immediately and strictly restrained. The initial ruling did not take into account of the factors such as the reality, consequences and duration of Huhan Yunhe Big Shark Sporting Goods Co., Ltd.’s infringement actions and the magnitude of its subjective offense in continuing and ignoring the infringement, after Yao Ming made an official statement in March 2010. Therefore, in the consideration of the factors and above, under the circumstance that the losses of the infringed due to the infringement and the benefits of the infringer due to the infringement were difficult to confirm, based on factors including the reality, consequences and duration of Wuhan Yunhe Big Shark Sporting Goods Co., Ltd.’s infringement actions, along with its subjective offense, the Court that Wuhan Yunhe Big Shark Sporting Goods Co., Ltd. shall pay the compensation of 1 million for his economic losses, including the fee spent on the right protection process.

In this case, the legal team from Beijing Janlea Law Firm, having kept close and constructive communication and cooperation with Yao’s team, completed a large amount of ground-breaking evidence-testing work, and successfully finished the commission of this case.