Nike, Inc. has been ordered by a German court to stop selling pants with two stripes in adidas home country, ruling that the product could be confused with the latters three-stripe product. The regional court in Cologne ruled that Nike, Inc. will have to pay damages of about 1 million to adidas-Salomon for selling the pants in the past and also warned Nike that it could be fined up to 250,000 if they do not stop selling the pants.
The court said that by selling two types of sports pants with double stripes on the side, Nike had infringed on the marketing rights of adidas, known as the company whose clothing has three stripes.
“adidas welcomes the decision of the court in Cologne,” adidas said in a statement. “This decision strengthens the protection of well-known trademarks and will help us protect the three stripes of Adidas in the future.”
In other adidas-Salomon news, CEO Herbert Hainer said late last week that the company has met its 2004 sales and profits goals. The company had forecast 20% net income growth for 2004 on a 5% currency-neutral revenue increase. Hainer also said the company was also confident about hitting its 2005 financial targets, or a 10% to 15% increase in net profit on a sales increase of less than 10% for the year.
>>> Always the conspiracy theorists, we have to wonder if Nike set this up to make a broader challenge to the three-stripe product outfitting Olympians. Is it a logo, or is it a trademark? Stay tuned sports fans…
