ADIDAS lost the exclusivity for the 3 strips

​It all started in 2009 when the Belgian company SHOE BRANDING EUROPE BVBA tried to register a shoe brand at the European Intellectual Property Office -EUIPO- with two parallel stripes on the side of the shoe. ADIDAS objected to this request and the trademark office denied the request.

After time, the litigation continued, until recently the General Court of the European Union, supporting the trademark entity, rejected the registration of ADIDAS for the three strips for exclusive use.

To the argument of the German brand that the three strips are identifying their products, the court responded that the three parallel lines are not clear enough in the minds of consumers, so that they automatically distinguish the product as belonging to ADIDAS. It called the lines "an ordinary figurative mark." ADIDAS still has an instance of appeal.