Uncle Xi Jinping spared comparison with dessert as Chinese court rejects appeal over blocked brand name
Ruling dismisses final attempt to register brand similar to Chinese president’s name, saying proposed trademark ‘likely to create bad influence’
A Chinese businessman has failed in his final legal appeal to register a trademark for his dessert brand “Diao Dada”, a name that in Chinese characters is almost identical to a common reference to President Xi Jinping.
Hubei businessman Diao Shiping argued that his brand was derived from his surname and bore no resemblance to “Xi Dada”, but Beijing’s high court said it had to consider “China’s political, economic and cultural reality”.
It ruled that Diao’s brand was “likely to create a negative social influence” and upheld the rulings of the government trademark board and a lower court.
In simplified Chinese characters, there is just one stroke in difference between “Diao” and “Xi”.
Diao, 44, first applied for the trademark in March 2016 under the category of goods including “sweets, honey, bread, cakes, cereal products and ice cream”, court documents show.