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The final decision by China's Supreme People's Court in a trademark dispute case brought by Michael Jordan has handed a partial victory to the U.S. basketball icon.

Michael Jordan’s representatives present at the Supreme People's Court when the controversial trademark case is brought to final trial in Beijing on Thursday, December 8, 2016. [Photo: sohu.com]

The trademark dispute was lodged by Jordan against China's trademark authority and Qiaodan Sports Co. Ltd., a Chinese sportswear and shoe manufacturer.

The SPC ruled the company had infringed Michael Jordan's right of name, and violated the law of trademark, and asked China's Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry & Commerce to revoke the firm's use of "喬丹", the Chinese characters for "Jordan".

However, the Supreme Court said the firm's other trademarks involving the transliteration of the players name into pinyin, "qiaodan" still stand, as Michael Jordan does not own the name rights in that form.

Pinyin is the official system in China for transcribing Standard Chinese using the Latin alphabet.

In 2012, Michael Jordan accused Qiaodan Sports of unauthorized use of his name and identity.

Jordan lodged an appeal to the trademark authority to revoke the trademarks in dispute, but this was rejected.

Later, Jordan filed two lawsuits against the adjudication of the trademark authority but lost both.

In 2016, Jordan appealed to the SPC for a retrial. The SPC accepted the appeal on the basis of the Administrative Procedural Law.