China's top men's badminton player Lin Dan has run into unexpected trouble trying to cash in on his superstar status, after discovering his name has already been trademarked, twice.

 

A Zhejiang-based company has registered "Lin Dan", in pinyin, as a trademark for health products, while a food-processing plant in Southwest China's Sichuan Province has registered his Chinese name.

 

According to the latest regulations by the trademark office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce issued January 7, the owner of the trademark will be able to keep it provided it is used for good purpose and no complaints are registered in the first three months.

 

The food-processing plant has already registered Lin Dan's name successfully and the trademark won't expire until October 2008.

 

"It is tough to get sports stars' names back if they are registered," admitted Lin's lawyer. "Lin needs to take some measures to protect his economic rights and interests ahead of time."

 

"I can't be 100 percent confident, but hopefully we can strike back at the Zhejiang-based manufacturer," the lawyer added.

 

Lin is not the first Chinese sports star to run into trouble with trademarks or Internet domain names.

 

Liu Xuegen, father of 110-meter hurdles world record holder Liu Xiang, went to register his son's name only to find it had already been taken. NBA star Yao Ming has been a frequent target of opportunist businesspeople: In one case his name was used as a trademark for sanitary napkins.

 

Lin claimed his first ever world title at the World Championships last September.

 

The 23-year-old Olympic hopeful has only been able to register his name in related lines such as badminton rackets, sportswear and foods. However, this has already set him back about 120,000 yuan ($15,000), a considerable amount given the relatively low prize money on offer in professional badminton.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2007)