Adidas has engaged in a trade mark dispute with a premium fashion brand known as “Thom Browne” over the use of a 4-stripe design on their clothing and footwear. Adidas is pursuing almost $8 million in damages alleging that Thom Browne’s use of its four-stripe design infringes and dilutes adidas’s famous three-stripe mark. Adidas argues that the average consumer viewing clothing and footwear displaying Thom Browne’s 4-stripe design will likely be confused and assume that such clothing is economically linked or endorsed by Adidas.
Thom Browne insists there is no way consumers will be confused between its 4-stripe design and Adidas’s 3-stripe design due to the fact that Thom Browne is a premium fashion brand and Adidas is a sports brand. Thom Browne asserts that a consumer will not purchase a pair of Thom Browne joggers for $900 and believe it’s from Adidas.
Adidas initially raised issues with Thom Browne’s use of stripe designs during 2007 when Thom Browne was using an almost identical 3-stripe design on its products. Following this Adidas objected to Thom Browne’s use of its current 4-stripe design which led to the present lawsuit.
During the jury trial, Adidas has detailed constant use of its registered 3-stripe mark since 1950 and claimed they spent around $300 million on advertising their 3-stripe design. Additionally, Adidas claims that because Thom Browne has featured their both their 3-stripe and 4-stripe design on sportswear and footwear, it will lead to initial and post-sale confusion as there is a huge resale market for trainers.
Furthermore, Thom Browne partnered with Lebron James (famous basketball player) and football club FC Barcelona which at the time had Lionel Messi playing for the team and collaborating with Adidas. Thom Browne contended there had been no actual confusion but Adidas presented survey evidence showing that nearly 30% of consumers believed Thom Browne’s products were sourced from Adidas. Adidas has explained their issue is with Thom Browne’s recent shift into sportswear in 2018.
From the trial so far it seems highly likely that the Court will rule in Adidas’s favour given the breadth of their arguments and the similarity between both trademarks. If Thom Browne and Adidas do not reach a settlement before the jury reaches a verdict, Adidas will ultimately be successful in this trial.
Written by Zohaib Tahir, an LLM student at Solent University
