Athletic wear giant Adidas and fashion house Thom Browne resumed their legal battle on Wednesday, with London’s High Court hearing the latest round of a global dispute over their competing striped trademarks.
New York designer Thom Browne, who regularly uses a four-bar stripe pattern, sued Adidas in London in 2021 to revoke several trademarks featuring Adidas’ iconic three-stripe motif.
Thom Browne, which switched from a three-bar pattern in 2007 after Adidas complained, argues that Adidas is effectively trying to monopolise the use of stripes on clothes.
Adidas, however, is countersuing Thom Browne for allegedly infringing its trademarks by selling leisure and sportswear featuring four stripes, accusing the fashion house of exploiting Adidas’ reputation and brand image. The two companies previously faced off in the United States, where a jury rejected Adidas’ trademark lawsuit last year, a decision upheld on appeal in May.
Thom Browne is also pursuing separate trademark litigation against Adidas in the Netherlands and at the European Union Intellectual Property Office.
With its eponymous founder watching in court, Thom Browne’s lawyer, Philip Roberts, said that Adidas had used certain trademarks as “Trojan horses” to prevent other companies from using stripes on their products.
Roberts added in court filings that “the breadth of Adidas’ asserted monopoly threatens the basic freedom of fashion designers to design clothing in the manner they wish.” However, Adidas’ lawyer, Charlotte May, said in court filings that Thom Browne’s 2020 launch of a sportswear range was a tipping point which “strikes at the heart of the Adidas business.”
She pointed to a collaboration with NBA star LeBron James and a partnership with Spanish soccer team Barcelona, when Adidas-sponsored player Lionel Messi was at the club, as evidence that “Thom Browne intends to continue their encroachment into sportswear and sports marketing.”
