Adidas’ famous three-stripe design can’t be protected by trademark in Europe.
So said the European Union General Court on Wednesday, upholding an earlier decision that the Germany-based company’s signature three parallel stripes — on sneakers, track suits, T-shirts and more — lacks “the necessary distinctiveness to be protected as a trademark,” TheFashionLaw.com reported Wednesday.
The fashion news site has been tracking the suit since the brand began its years-long fight to secure and enforce rights to its design — often mimicked in copycat designs.
The latest decision says that Adidas’ three-stripe mark is “not a pattern mark, as Adidas has asserted, but instead, an ordinary figurative mark, meaning that it has fixed proportions” and “the sportswear brand failed to show that its largely well-known mark had acquired the necessary distinctive character throughout all 28 countries of the EU in order to qualify for legal protection,” the news site reported.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners on Thursday announced a new online interactive quiz “What the Flood?” intended to nudge homeowners who may not have adequate flood insurance coverage.