The European patent court has ruled against sporting giant Adidas in its attempt to trade mark its famous ‘three stripes’ branding.
In a ruling announced today, 19th June 2019, the General Court of the European Union agreed with EU intellectual property authorities that the German sportswear brand could not trade mark three stripes next to each other.
In making its decision, the court said Adidas failed to show that its three stripes branding was distinct enough for the European market.
In its application, the sportswear giant said its branding depicts “three parallel equidistant stripes of equal width applied to the product in whichever direction”.
However, the court ruled that Adidas did not show that the trade mark had acquired a “distinctive character” throughout the 28-country bloc.
The decision upholds the annulment of the previous acceptance of the trade mark registered by Adidas in 2014 for use on its clothing, footwear and headgear products.
In a statement regarding the decision, an Adidas spokesperson said the company was disappointed with the ruling.
“This ruling is limited to this particular execution of the 3-stripe mark and does not impact on the broad scope of protection that Adidas has on its well-known 3-stripe mark in various forms in Europe,” the spokesperson said.
They added: “Whilst we are disappointed with the decision, we are further evaluating it and are welcoming the useful guidance that the court will give us for protecting our 3-stripe mark applied to our products in whichever direction in the future.”
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