Adidas loses TM case over three-stripe logo
US designer offended at claims that he was trying to trade on the sportswear giant’s name | Jury found in favour of the argument that stripes cannot be owned.
US fashion designer Thom Browne has been handed a victory in his high-profile dispute with Adidas over the German sportswear giant’s ‘three-stripe’ logo.
The jury at a Manhattan court yesterday, January 12, found against claims that Browne had infringed or carried out trademark dilution.
During proceedings before the jurors, Browne’s counsel told jurors that Adidas does not own stripes and that the designer was "offended" by the suggestion that his brand wanted to trade on Adidas’ reputation.
Back in June 2021, the German sportswear company sued the designer at the US Court for the Southern District of New York, accusing Browne of selling “athletic-style apparel and footwear featuring two, three or four parallel stripes in a manner that is confusingly similar to Adidas’ three-stripe mark”.
According to Adidas, the allegedly infringing sportswear imitates its iconic mark in a manner that is likely to “deceive the public regarding its source, sponsorship, association, or affiliation”, and that Browne’s actions were “irreparably harming Adidas’ brand and its extremely valuable three-stripe mark”.
Ineligibility argument
In May 2022, Browne filed a counterclaim, arguing that the contested mark isn’t eligible for protection because third parties have designed and sold clothing, footwear, and fashion accessories featuring decorative stripes for decades.
The filing contended that consumers are accustomed to seeing stripes used on clothing sold by different manufacturers.
It further argued that because the design is merely ornamental and/or aesthetically functional, the mark is not likely to be perceived by the consuming public as an identification of the source of the goods.
“As a mark that is merely ornamental and/or aesthetically functional, the three-quadrilaterals design has not acquired secondary meaning as of the date of submission of this counterclaim and is not entitled to a federal trademark registration,” stated the filing.
Browne also criticised Adidas for achieving notoriety as an “overzealous enforcer” of its actual and perceived rights in its three-stripe mark.
In recent years Adidas sued others for alleged infringement of its three-stripe logo, including J.Crew, Forever 21, Skechers, Juicy Couture, Tesla, Marc Jacobs, Sears, Abercrombie & Fitch, Ralph Lauren and Target.
In a statement, an Adidas spokesperson said: "We are disappointed with the verdict and will continue to vigilantly enforce our intellectual property, including filing any appropriate appeals."
WIPR has approached Thom Browne for comment.
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