Nike has been permitted to include three stripes on some of its trouser designs in Germany, a court ruled yesterday (28 May) during a second appeal hearing between the retailer and Adidas.
The Duesseldorf regional court had previously banned Nike from using two or three stripes across five of its trouser designs, after its rival filed a trademark violation lawsuit back in 2022.
However, the footwear company has now been given the green light to use the stripes on four of its disputed designs, although a ban for one remaining model remains, partially overturning the previous ruling.
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Since 2008, Adidas has filed more than 90 lawsuits and signed more than 200 settlement agreements related to its three-stripe trademark, according to court documents from the sportswear retailer’s battle against designer Thom Browne.
Last year, Adidas withdrew its request to the US authorities to reject a Black Lives Matter application for a trademark featuring three parallel stripes.
The sportswear retailer had argued the political group’s yellow-stripe design would create confusion with its own three-stripe mark.
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