Sportswear maker Adidas AG yesterday reversed course and said it was withdrawing a request to the US Trademark Office to reject a Black Lives Matter application for a trademark featuring three parallel stripes.
“Adidas will withdraw its opposition to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation’s trademark application as soon as possible,” a spokesperson for the German company said, without giving a reason for the decision.
The foundation in November 2020 applied for a federal trademark covering a yellow three-stripe design to use on a variety of products, including clothing, publications, bags, bracelets and mugs.
Photo: Reuters
Adidas had told the trademark office in a Monday filing that the foundation’s yellow-stripe design was confusingly similar to its three-stripe logo, and that consumers would likely think their goods were connected or came from the same source.
It sought to block the group’s application to use the design on goods that the German sportswear maker also sells, such as shirts, hats and bags.
Representatives of the Black Lives Matter group did not respond immediately to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Adidas said in the filing it has been using its logo as early as 1952, and that it has acquired “international fame and tremendous public recognition.”
Adidas has filed more than 90 lawsuits and signed more than 200 settlement agreements related to the three-stripe trademark since 2008, court documents from a lawsuit the firm brought against designer Thom Browne’s fashion house show.
A jury in that case decided in January that Thom Browne’s stripe patterns did not violate Adidas’ trademark rights.
The foundation is the most prominent entity in the decentralized Black Lives Matter movement, which arose a decade ago to protest police violence against black people.
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