Following a Trademark Infringement battle loss over its three-stripe logo just a few months ago to Shoe Branding Europe BVBA; Adidas has once again lost its rights to prevent others from registering 2-stripe trademarks, at least not in Japan.

1. Adidas Loses Trademark
Infringement Lawsuit to Japanese
Footwear Brand

2. Adidas Loses Trademark Infringement
Lawsuit to Japanese Footwear Brand
Following a Trademark Infringement battle loss over its three-stripe logo just a
few months ago to Shoe Branding Europe BVBA; Adidas has once again lost its
rights to prevent others from registering 2-stripe trademarks, at least not in
Japan. The Japan Patent Office (JPO; the national Intellectual Property (IP) body
of Japan) has recently dismissed Adidas' attempt to invalidate Marubeni
Footwear's Trademark Registration for a diagonal 2-stripe trademark.

3. Last year in April, Adidas went to the JPO for getting Marubeni's registration
canceled claiming, that by registering the 2-stripe trademark, the Tokyo-based
footwear brand wants to take advantage of its well-acclaimed and iconic 3-stripe
registered trademarks. In its filing, the German sportswear giant also stated that
Marubeni's 2-stripe trademark would give the buyers the same impression as to
its 3-stripe trademarks since each stripe is in the same direction, and of the same
shape and width, besides the stripe count difference. For the one stripe
difference, Adidas argued by saying that it has been substantially using its famed
3-stripe mark since the early 1950s, that too, in various configurations, length,
and colors, and an average customer would associate Marubeni's 2-stripe mark
with its 3-stripes. Furthermore, Adidas also asserted that the space between the
stripes of different colors in the 2-stripe mark could easily appear to be three
stripes, which it fears the relevant customers would confuse for its shoes.
However, the JPO's Opposition Board felt differently in this matter and gave a
judgment in favor of Marubeni by saying that although there is a high degree of
popularity and reputation associated with Adidas' 3-stripe trademark, an average
customer shall never mistake two stripes for three stripes while purchasing shoes.
Coming to Adidas' argument of the use of two stripes with a contrasting space,
which may appear to be three separate stripes, the Opposition Board was
unconvinced and said that the mark has only two stripes and the issue of spacing
is not relevant in this particular case.
Keeping everything in mind, the Opposition Board dismissed Adidas' Trademark
Opposition proceedings and held that Marubeni's trademark registration would
continue to remain valid.
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