In a rematch between the US sportswear manufacturer and its smaller rival Adidas, a court in Germany has decided that Nike is allowed to have three stripes on certain of its pant designs.
Adidas launched a complaint in 2022 alleging trademark infringement, and as a result, the Duesseldorf regional court had already banned the American company from using two or three stripes on five of its pant designs.
The court partially overturned the previous ruling, ruling that Nike can now utilise the stripes on four of the contested models but the ban for the one remaining model is still in effect. Adidas is a well-known trademark that it fights tenaciously to defend in numerous courts across the globe: the three parallel stripes.
But a year ago, the German company chose to withdraw their lawsuit challenging Black Lives Matter’s yellow three-stripe emblem because they were worried that their opposition would be interpreted as a critique of the anti-racism group.
Nike argues that Adidas’ protection is too limited because striped design isn’t always associated with the brand it belongs to.
