Adidas lines up new target in three-stripe trademark claim

Shoe-maker Adidas has sued Danish shoe manufacturer Ecco accusing it of infringing its three-stripe trademark.

In a lawsuit filed at the US District Court for the District of Oregon, Portland Division, Adidas claimed Ecco “uses substantially identical imitations” of the three-stripe trademark that is likely to cause consumer confusion. The complaint was filed on Wednesday, April 20.

Ecco’s footwear, which features three and four parallel stripes on the side of the shoe, infringe and dilute Adidas’s trademark and amounts to unfair competition and unfair business practice, the complaint said.

Adidas has demanded that Ecco does not make any “imitation or simulation” of the three-stripe trademark and is seeking to ban the company from advertising, promoting or selling the infringing footwear. It is also seeking costs and attorney’s fees.

Last month, Adidas sued Athletic Propulsion Labs in a lawsuit that also accused the company of infringing its three-stripe trademark.