The European Union General Court ruled against Adidas in a trademark dispute over its famous three stripes.
In the courts ruling, it held that the “three-stripe” logo, which was first registered in August 1949 by Adidas founder, Adolf “Adi” Dassler, was not “distinctive” enough to warrant trademark protection throughout EU territories.
According to Mark Caddle, a trademark lawyer at the European intellectual property firm Withers & Rogers, Adidas “failed to provide sufficient evidence to show that when seeing three stripes on clothing, footwear or headgear, consumers immediately associate such products with Adidas,” the Guardian reported.
Adidas had tried to establish a wider trademark for “three parallel equidistant stripes of equal width applied to the product in whichever direction,” according to Reuters. The German sporting goods company has trademark protection for its slanted three-stripe logo.
