Adidas'S "Three Bars" Hegemony

"Adidas is like a tiger protecting its cubs, fiercely protecting its classic stripes." Forbes magazine commented. In April 10th, the German sports giant once again won the protection of "cubs". The favorable ruling of the European Court of justice indicates that Adidas's "three bars" hegemony is moving towards "two bars" and "four bars". It also indicates that its "striped hegemony" has crossed Germany and has begun to expand to the European Union and even the whole world. Although Adidas's trademark is three stripes, the ruling of the European Court of justice can legally prohibit any competitor from using two or four stripes. The court explained that the important thing is not the number of stripes, but whether the buyers will link it to the Adidas trademark. Adidas's targets include C & A, H & M, Marca Mode and Vendex, the four largest international apparel traders. And for this paper decision, Adidas has been fighting for ten years. In the late 90s of last century, Adidas filed a complaint against a local court in Holland, claiming that the two stripes designed by the four garment manufacturers violated their trademark rights and interests. The Holland court has been pending until the two sides finally decided to submit it to the European Court of justice. After the ruling of the European Court of justice, the case will return to the Holland court again, and the latter will determine the amount of compensation and so on. In fact, in 1970s, the German court had made a final judgment. Any two, three or four stripes were designed to infringe the trademark rights of Adidas's "three bars". With this decision, Adidas even defeated its old rival, Nike. In 2005, a pair of parallel stripes was stitched on the joint of Nike's short pants listed in January 2006. In January 2006, the local court of Cologne, Germany, supported Adidas's appeal and ordered Nike to stop selling such infringing garments and fined 1 million euros. During the same period, Tom Tailor, a German garment manufacturer, was fined 500 thousand euros for the design of two bars of a jacket cuff. Outside Germany, Adidas's "stripes" are also happening. In 2003, Adidas filed a lawsuit against Fitness Universal Trading Corporation in Luxemburg. In 2005, Adidas accused Ralph Lauren and a & F of the US courts for their two striped patterns of clothing and sports shoes violating their trademarks. But at present, the design of the five bars is an exception. Since 1966, the US K Swiss footwear brand has been using uncontroversial five stripes. This month's ruling by the European Court of justice means that in the EU, if two, three or four stripes are used on clothing and sports shoes, it is likely to infringe Adidas's trademark rights. This is, of course, a blow to Adidas's competitors, but it also caused some independent designers' dissatisfaction. Ursula Hudson, a well-known designer in London, said in a media interview that the design elements of the stripe should not be the private property of a company. She believes that the most dangerous result of this decision is "restricting the creative inspiration of designers and combating the entire design industry".