Adidas Three Bar Marks Can Not Be Registered Trademarks Seeking Psychological Shadow Area

The The General Court of the European Union announced on Wednesday that Germany's famous campaign was judged. brand Adidas (Adidas)'s "three bars" sign lacks enough distinctive features, so it is not registered. trademark Eligibility.

The European Court of common law said that it supported the decision made by the European Intellectual Property Office (E.U.I.P.O.) in 2016 to cancel the three bar before becoming a registered trademark.

Adidas registered the trademark as early as 2014, and has been in dispute with Belgian shoe company Shoe Branding Europe (its trademark "two bars") for several years.

According to the court, "the three bars" is not a pattern, but "ordinary figurative mark". Adidas needs to prove that the logo has been "distinctive character (unique recognition") in various EU countries, so that consumers can realize that the goods are from Adidas instead of other brands or companies through the logo. However, Adidas can only provide relevant evidence of identification in five countries, rather than the whole European Union.

Adidas expressed disappointment at the verdict, but they could still choose to appeal to the European Court of Justice (the Supreme Court of the European Union) within two months.

Years of disputes with Shoe Branding Europe

Shoe Branding Europe submitted two trademark registration applications to the EU Intellectual Property Office (E.U.I.P.O.) in 2009 and 2011 respectively: one for ordinary shoes and one for safety shoes.

Adidas objected to the application of Shoe Branding Europe. The reason is that the "two bars" sign of Shoe Branding Europe is similar to the registered "three bars" sign. If registered as the EU trademark, it will get illegitimate interests from the "three bar" trademark, which will be harmful to Adidas.

Initially, the objection Department of E.U.I.P.O. and the second appeal board rejected Adidas's objection. However, in May 2015, the European Union General Court ruled that the logo of Shoe Branding Europe could lead to confusion between brands and abolished the committee's decision.

Subsequently, Shoe Branding Europe appealed to the European Court of justice, claiming that its "two bars" sign had been coexisted with the "three bars" of adidas for decades. There was no evidence that confusion would exist, and the stripes of different lengths were enough to distinguish their "two bar" signs and Adidas's "three bar" trademarks.

In February 2016, the European Court ruled that the possibility of confusion was ruled out by the European Court of common justice. Following the decision of the European Court of justice, the E.U.I.P.O. second Appeals Board re examined Adidas's appeal against the ruling of the objection department.

In June 2016, the E.U.I.P.O. second appeal board supported Adidas's appeal and rejected the two registration applications of Shoe Branding Europe.

Subsequently, Shoe Branding Europe appealed to the General Court of the European Union for the second time, saying that E.U.I.P.O. failed to analyze and evaluate itself in the two assessment, but adopted the previous decision of the European Court of justice.

In March last year, the ninth chamber of the European Court of Justice ruled that Adidas would defend its "three bars" trademark and allow Adidas to block the application of trademark registration for "two bars" of Shoe Branding Europe. Adidas is very sensitive to trademark issues. Three parallel stripes are the classic symbols of Adidas. They are usually printed on the sides of adidas shoes or on both sides of the sleeves. Since the company's founder Adi Dassler was first used on shoes in 1950s, the "three bars" have become the iconic pattern of Adidas. Almost all Adidas products have such designs, which is why Adidas constantly sued.

Over the past few years, Adidas and its US subsidiaries have filed about 50 trademark litigation subjects including Ecco, Marc Jacobs, Skechers and Tesla, Puma, Forever 21 and so on. At the end of last year, Adidas and Forever21 reached an out of court settlement on the legal disputes over the infringement of the three bars. Author: Jiang Fan