Trademark dispute: Adidas

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/jun/19/adidas-loses-three-stripe-trademark-battle-in-european-court

Sportswear apparel company Adidas attempted to trademark their companies signature "Three stripe marking" used on many of its products. the Logo of the company was first registered in 1949 by company founder Adi Dassler. However, the brand was declared not distinctive enough by the court to identify products as originating from adidas.

This did change in 2014, where Adidas were successful in trademarking their logo and designs as "three parallel equidistant stripes of identical width, applied on the product in any direction” on clothing, hats and shoes."

this trademark was over ruled two years later when Shoe Branding Europe won the case against the company, claiming that Adidas “failed to provide sufficient evidence to show that when seeing three stripes on clothing, footwear or headgear, consumers immediately associate such products with Adidas”.

Adidas had also gone after dutch fitness apparel company Fitnessworld for using a two striped design on track pants, however Adidas also lost that court case.