Sticking Point: Chinese Court Overturns Ruling Against Nike

Beijing High People’s Court Rules Nike Did Not Copy Artist's Design

The Beijing High People’s Court on Thursday overturned a lower court verdict that had ordered Nike to pay Chinese Internet cartoonist Zhu Zhiqiang US$36,000 in compensation for the company’s “use of a stick figure illustration” and issue a public apology to Zhu, according to the AP. The high court rejected the December ’04 ruling that found Nike had “copied his ‘Little Match Man’ illustration in one of its worldwide ad campaigns.” Judge Liu Hui ruled that the head of Nike’s “stickman wasn’t attached to the body, which was different from Zhu’s design and that the strokes used to draw the Nike figure’s arms and legs were different from Zhu’s also.” Zhu will now have to pay court fees of more than US$5,000 (AP, 6/16).