Victory for adidas – a new milestone in the battle against 2 stripes on shoes

General Court, judgment of 21 May 2015, T-145/14, adidas AG v. OHIM / Shoe Branding Europe BVBA*)

Shoe Branding had filed an application for the following Community trademark:

adidas opposed this based on numerous earlier trademark rights, all protecting its famous 3-Stripe mark, and including its CTM registration for the following mark:

OHIM’s Board of Appeal found these marks dissimilar and denied any likelihood of confusion or misappropriation of the reputation of adidas’ trademark. Adidas appealed to the General Court.

The General Court sided with adidas and annulled the Board of Appeal decision. It found that the Board wrongly found the marks to be dissimilar, which meant that it wrongly denied likelihood of confusion and taking unfair advantage of the reputation of adidas’ 3-Stripe mark. The Court held that the Board of Appeal had attributed too much importance to the inclination of the stripes and whether there were two or three stripes. The Board was wrong in disregarding the significant similarities between the signs including that they were parallel stripes, equidistant and of the same width, which contrast with the background, applied to the products in the same position.

The General Court’s findings are in line with those made by numerous national courts in the EU Member States where adidas has consistently and successfully fought attempts by competitors to mimic their famous 3-Stripe brand by deleting (or also adding) just one stripe. In this respect, the decision contributes to the harmonization of trademark practice in Europe.

*) Verena von Bomhard and Johannes Fuhrmann, now of BomhardIP, represented adidas throughout the proceedings including written and oral submissions to the General Court.