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Many people on both sides of the Pacific Ocean have reveled in the phenomenon of Linsanity, but only one man will own the catch phrase’s rights, Jeremy Lin.

On May 26th, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded the phrase to Lin, whose incredible rise from an undrafted rookie to the star point guard of the New York Knicks catapulted him into a global icon. Lin filed the case in February after a man with no ties to the Lin family filed the Linsanity trademark.

“It’s not only Linsanity, but all Lin-related trademarks,” Pamela M. Deese, a partner in the law firm Arent Fox LLP who is working on the player’s behalf, said in a telephone interview. “Having a clean plate with rights in place makes it a lot easier to negotiate licenses and endorsements deals.”

Lin’s capture of Linsanity is a huge boost for the 23 year-old point guard, who has quickly become one of the most popular players in the NBA. He signed an endorsement deal with Volvo in March and there is currently a documentary in the works about his journey from an under-recruited college player to an NBA star.

Lin is currently recovering from knee surgery that ended his season prematurely on April 1.

But, Lin’s legal battles aren’t quite over yet. Lin, a restricted free-agent, is awaiting an appeal filed by the NBA players’ association to allow teams who acquired a player off waivers to retain their Early Bird Rights. Lin was picked up on December 27th by the Knicks after the Houston Rockets released him. Before that, he was let go by the Golden State Warriors in pre-season.

The decision is important for both the Knicks and Lin. If the union wins their appeal, the Knicks will be able to re-sign Lin without using their mid-level exception, which means the Knicks could go above the salary cap to extend Lin to a multi-year deal. Without being forced to use the mid-level of Lin, it would also mean that the Knicks could use the exception to sign another player — a dream scenario for a team that lacks depth.

The decision will be made by the NBA on June 13th.

Jeremy Lin’s magical season on the big state Madison Square Garden looks to be over, but the phenomenon of Linsanity appears to still have plenty of life on the big (and small) screen.

In March, Lafeng Entertainment announced “Awesome Basketball Kid,” a 30-episode television series about the life of Jeremy Lin that will air in China. The project is still in pre-production, so no word on exactly when it will air here in the Middle Kingdom, but thanks to some good detective work from Beijing Cream, we do know that the show “will have romantic scenes, which are important segments of the show, as the lead character will be involved in relationships with heroines,” in addition to the obvious basketball angle.

In addition to getting some dramatic made-for-television Chinese television series, Lin will also be the subject of a big screen documentary back in the United States. Here’s the story from the Los Angeles Times:

According to a person familiar with the pitch who was not authorized to talk about it publicly, the movie (no firm title yet, so let your pun-riddled imagination run wild) looks both at Lin’s unlikely run in the NBA as well at his humble background. Los Angeles-born and Palo-Alto raised, Lin shone at Harvard after being passed over by recruiters at college powerhouses, then bounced around pro basketball as an undrafted free agent before landing with the Knicks. The movie will also include elements of his Christian faith.

According to the LA Times article, Evan Jackson Leong, who assisted director Justin Lin on “The Fast and the Furious” franchise, will direct. His resume also includes a documentary about Christianity in Asia called “1040.”

Our opinion: If done right and if done on time, the documentary could definitely be a big hit. But the latter will be an issue — if this is released mid-season 2012-13, Linsanity may have already run its course and demand may be low. With no guarantees about his health or his position on the Knicks’ depth chart (assuming they re-sign him this off-season) either, its possible that he could be due for a bit of a statistical drop off. However, if they can get everything together for a summer release or even an early-to-mid fall one, Lin would still be fresh enough in people’s minds for this thing to really blow up.

Either way, there’s enough demand from the many Linsciples for the documentary for it to be successful. You can bet we’ll be keeping a key eye on this as the news keeps coming out.

In the meantime, we’re taking suggestions for a title in the comments section.

Though reports of Linsanity’s demise may have been pre-mature, it looks like is set for an extended hiatus. From ESPN.com:

The New York Knicks announced before the Cleveland Cavaliers game on Saturday night that starting point guard Jeremy Lin will be out approximately six weeks with a small chronic meniscal tear in his left knee, based on an MRI exam.

Lin will have arthrosopic surgery early next week in New York to repair the injury.

Another report by ESPN.com says Lin will likely be out for the season. So can we just officially call this a Liniscus tear? Sorry, that was too easy. Anyways, expect Baron Davis, Mike Bibby and Toney Douglas to split time at the point while Lin recovers.

• Shameless self-promotion in three, two, one… Check me, the blog and my quotes in Bryan Graham’s piece in Sports Illustrated about Stephon Marbury and his rise to folk-hero in Beijing.

• Some facts in this article are wrong (at the beginning of this CBA season there were six American head coaches, not four; they missed Jay Humphries in Foshan and Joey Stiebing in Fujian), but it’s still a pretty good read on some of the challenges that present themselves to English-speaking basketball coaches in China.

• Alan Anderson, who played for Shandong this year, just signed a 10-day with the Toronto Raptors. And Wilson Chandler, who played with Guangsha, just signed a five-year $37 million with the Denver Nuggets.

• Pictures of Yao Ming, his wife and his daughter sitting courtside at a Rockets game last Sunday night.

• After cursing Stephon Marbury on live television, Su Wei is not exactly a popular figure in Beijing these days. To make that clear to everyone, Beijing photoshoppers displayed the big center as a dead man; a development that didn’t sit too well with Guangdong Southern Tigers owner, Liu Hongjiang. So Liu called for an online “human flesh search” to search for the perpetrator, offering an RMB 5,000 reward for a name. The result: “Angry Hongyuan fans narrowed their search down to a few people, including this Beijinger, surnamed Fan, who barely watches basketball. ‘They found the wrong woman!‘ she said. Fan had to deal with so many foul-talking callers on Saturday that her phone battery died within a short time. Most of the calls were from Guangdong Province.” Way to stay classy, Guangdong.  (H/T on both of those to Beijing Cream)

• Linsanity may be R.I.P. in the States, but in China it’s getting its own television series.

• “From early morning, starting with the rhythmic patter of old Chinese women shooting two-handed set shots from 15 feet, to late at night when the lucky ones who live near the lighted courts scattered around Beijing wait twenty minutes to get on for one game of four-on-four half-court, basketball is always going on here.” See, I wasn’t lying.

Mike Woodson as the head coach in New York might mean the end of Jeremy Lin as the centerpiece of the Knicks and of Linsanity as we know it. (Photo: @art3ye)

Whoever said the month of March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb obviously never lived in Beijing (as evidenced by our two inches of snow last night), nor did they ever consider Jeremy Lin’s career as a New York Knick.

Mike D’Antoni’s resignation the Knicks head coach quickly became the headline of Trade Deadline Thursday, and while we were a little shocked given its timing and nature, we were and still are far more concerned for what it means to the world’s favorite Linsation.

What it means essentially is that March won’t be as good to Lin as February was. The simple stuff goes like this: The old D’Antoni being replaced by the new Mike Woodson means the end of Lin’s best friend, the pick-and-roll, and the beginning of a lot of Carmelo Anthony isolations on the Knicks logo inside the three-point line, and maybe an equal amount, but probably not as much of isolations on the right elbow for Amar’e Stoudemire. Anyone who watched the Hawks during the iso-Joe (Johnson) days knows that, which is why it wasn’t surprising when Woodson said that plans on making some “changes” to D’Antoni’s point-guard centered offense.

Those changes won’t put Lin on the bench right now — Woodson said #17 is still the starter — but, given the coach’s reputation in Atlanta as one prefers to get the rock to his superstars and have his veteran supporting cast fill in the rest, there is considerable speculation that Lin will eventually make way for Baron Davis. Some people think that result is practically guaranteed. The New York Post’s Frank Isola has a source who thinks that change will come in less than two weeks, while the New Times’ Howard Beck has someone who has worked with Woodson saying his “inclination would not be to play him.”

The more complicated stuff can be read in Kelly Dwyer’s great piece the Knicks’ current conundrum on Ball Don’t Lie that kindly points out that Amar’e has turned into a spot-up jump shooter, and that Davis and Lin shouldn’t turn into spot-up shooters, which is exactly what they’ll become when they dump it into either one of their superstar teammates and promptly cut to the weak side.

With Linsanity already having slowed down considerably from the full-blown five-alarm contagion that spread throughout the world throughout February, the new writing on the proverbial wall (and newspaper) caused the New York Post to officially lay the phenomenon to rest on its Friday front page.

We hope that declaration is premature, but there’s no denying that things are looking to be quite different in MSG. (Of course, more 19-7-6′s wont hurt Lin’s cause to keep playing 30+ minutes a night.) We just wonder, why things have to be different. Well actually, we do know the answer to that: Anthony and Stoudemire have four years and roughly $83 million on the rest of their deals, while Lin is on a minimum contract that expires at the end of the season.

But we can still shake our heads as to how. How can a guy who came in, won games, brought his teammates together, brought the Knicks back to relevance and created an NYC/international phenomenon, be pushed out so casually?

Oh right. It’s the New York Knicks.

By this point, which is now Day Eight of Linsanity, there’s already been quite a bit written and said about Jeremy Lin (some of which has even appeared on this very space). That won’t stop me from adding my drop in the bucket, though.

My Jeremy Lin story comes from Portsmouth, Virginia when I was covering the annual Portsmouth Invitational Tournament for NBADraft.net in April 2010. The basketball was largely forgettable, but the one of the guys that stuck out was the kid from Harvard. Already aware of his considerable ability after he shredded my Boston College Eagles not once, but two years in a row, I wasn’t totally shocked to see Lin slipping by defenders on the perimeter off the dribble to finish at the basket with an array of in control gliding finishes.

But, I’d be lying if I thought he’d be dropping 38 on the Los Angeles Lakers in Madison Square Garden one day.

And yet, that’s where we’re at after the latest chapter of Jeremy Lin’s incredible story from virtually unrecruited high schooler, to undrafted NBA rookie, to the star starting point guard for the New York Knicks, was written in MSG last night after Lin torched the Lakers for 38 points and seven assists in a 92-85 win.

The Knicks, who were once in such bad shape that head coach Mike D’Antoni was counting on Baron Davis to save his job, have been been revitalized; the fan base, reinvigorated into a 1994 frenzy; and an entire nation, utterly captivated by an Asian-American Harvard grad who has been cut by three NBA teams over the last two seasons.

And no, while a nation named the United States is included in the captivation, that’s not the one I’m talking about.

In China, Lin is known by his Chinese name, Lin Shuhao (林书豪), and like the legions of Lin fans in the U.S. who are following his every move, the Chinese are getting down with Linsanity, too. The son of two Taiwanese-born parents, the American born and raised guard has considerable connections to both the PRC and Taiwan, and has stated how proud he is to be Chinese as recently as this week.

Just think about that for a second: With a 13-hour time difference between Beijing and New York, Linsanity is not only transglobal, it literally never sleeps. Which should make even the biggest of Lin supporters all the more happy knowing that the phenomenon is spreading round-the-clock.

These links should make them happy, too.

• Viewers in China weren’t able to watch the Lin Dynasty go up against Kobe and the Lake Show this morning, but thanks to some last minute schedule juggling by the people at CCTV-5, they’ll be able to watch him play versus the Minnesota Timberwolves tomorrow.

• Other than television sets, the Chinese interwebs are ablaze, too: Lin’s Sina Weibo page (Twitter with Chinese characteristics) is now up to 500,000 viewers. And 林书豪, finished second on finished second on the seven-day list of trending topics on Chinese search engine Baidu this week.

• Anyone who needs an explanation over Lin’s totally unpredictable rise to MSG legend hasn’t been paying attention — it’s Year of the Dragon, the most unpredictable year of them all! And as Shanghaiist points out, Lin was born as a Dragon, which means this year is his benmingnian (Chinese Zodiac year), which adds even more to the unpredictability! Now that’s exciting! Typically, one’s benmingnian has the potential to bring lots of bad luck… you know, if you believe in that kind of stuff.

• Maybe not a little known fact, but hardly a widespread one: While the NBA was locked out, Lin practiced and played a few games with the Chinese Basketball Association’s DongGuan New Century Leopards in September (H/T JeremyLin.net for photos). You can check out video here.

• Not China per se, but this quote is priceless from an Asian-American woman at a Lin viewing party in New York: “All the Asian-American guys want to be Jeremy Lin. And all the Asian-American girls want to marry him.”

• Chinese fans will like this: Jeremy Lin reads and writes a little bit of Chinese and speaks Mandarin well enough to be interviewed.

• Like us, Anthony Tao over at Heart of Beijing was watching this morning’s Wolves-Mavs game and noticed that down the stretch the two in-studio commentators basically stopped doing their jobs to probably watch the fourth quarter of the Knicks-Lakers game. Like we said, Linsanity is alive and well in China.

• It should be the last thing on anyone’s mind right now — but if Lin’s NBA career doesn’t pan out (for the record, we really hope it does), some people think he would be a superstar in the Chinese Basketball Association.

This article was oringally posted on Sheridan Hoops

Jeremy Lin put on another show Wednesday night, logging his third consecutive 20-plus point game as the New York Knicks defeated the Washington Wizards 107-93.

In Beijing, a certain SheridanHoops.com columnist was back at work following an extended break for Chinese New Year, wondering whether his e-mail pal could pull off another one of the types of performances that had fans at Madison Square Garden chanting “M-V-P” two nights ago.

Lin certainly did, with 23 points, 10 assists and four rebounds.

Lin had a Q and A with this rejuvenated Beijing-based reporter, which is posted below.

SH: When you heard all rapturous chants of “Je-re-my” and “M-V-P”, what were you feeling?

Lin: It was an unbelievable experience and I’m just thankful to God for the opportunity to play at Madison Square Garden and thankful to the fans for their support.

SH: You have such a great performances the last two games. How do you comment on that, and how did your coach and teammates comment on that?

Lin: The team was really happy in general because we really needed the win, and it was a total team effort. We played really hard, especially defensively and we’re glad to get the wins.

SH: A lot of reporters said that your performance was kind of like American Dream comes true. Do you agree with that?

Lin: Yeah, I think it is fair to say that.

SH: Before the game against New Jersey Nets, you had rarely been in the regular rotation. When do you know you would be an important role in that game? How’s your feeling? Nervous or excited?

Lin: I was unsure if I was going to play and how much I would play, but I’m just glad I was able to get comfortable out on the court.

SH: CBS reporter Ken Berger said “Finally the Knicks found the right PG to do the right things”, so what are the right things in your mind?

Lin: The right thing is to attack the defense and take whatever they give us.

SH: During the practices, you play a lot of pick and roll with big guys. Which one do you think you have a good communication with? Amare or Tyson?

Lin:”Both. I’m slowly developing a chemistry with both of them.

SH: What do you think of the Knicks offensive system? Do you think you are a right piece of that?

Lin: The Knicks offense is suitable for me because there’s a lot of pick and rolls and a lot of space.