Nike, Inc., fresh off a ten year battle in Spain that gave them rights to their brand name there, has decided to challenge their top global competition’s recent victories over any company using stripes as decoration on apparel. It will be the Swoosh versus the Stripes as Nike, Inc. last week filed suit against adidas America, Inc. and parent adidas-Salomon AG in a preemptive strike to force a court to rule on the use of stripes on apparel before adidas takes the initiative here.

adidas has not filed suit against Nike for any such infringement in the U.S., but a German court in January ordered Nike, Inc. to stop selling pants with two stripes in adidas’ home country, ruling that the product could be confused with the latter’s 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. Nike said it plans to appeal that decision.

A similar action is currently awaiting a decision in a court in the Netherlands.

By filing the suit now, Nike apparently hopes to get a favorable ruling on their home turf as well, a move that will force adidas to continue to litigate their position that any stripes represent an infringement of the company’s trademark.

In court papers obtained by Sports Executive Weekly, Nike, Inc. contends that “Stripes have been widely and commonly used as a design element in athletic apparel for decades, if not centuries” and have been used by Nike and others. Nike contends that they use the stripes merely as a design element, a treatment that is always accompanied by a Nike trademark logo of some type.

At the root of the suit is Nike’s claim that “adidas has attempted to expand its rights to discourage the use of decorative striping that adidas has no right to protect.”

This case actually goes much deeper and has implications far beyond design elements in fashion apparel. Expect Nike to continue to litigate these cases to establish that the three stripe embellishment on adidas apparel either serves as the company’s logo and therefore should be regulated in size on apparel used in competition from the Olympics to the World Cup, or that the stripes represent a design element that could be used by any apparel company. While Nike and others see limited brand exposure through the size of their logo on garments, adidas is readily recognizable because of the three stripe embellishment.

In an article in The Oregonian, adidas said it is reviewing the complaint. The article said the company defended its previous infringement suits, saying it is trying “to prevent the use of striped markings that confuse consumers, or cause them to make a link with our company and its famous trademark.”


>>> What are the implications if adidas’ exposure is reduced to a small logo or all track pants at the Bejing Olympics have stripes, regardless of the brand…