Adidas has asked the United States Trademark Office to reject the application of Black Lives Matter, which has submitted a logo with three parallel stripes in yellow, as the sports giant believes it could confuse the public.
Adidas argues that the yellow stripe design of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation Inc would create confusion with its own brand, which is characterized by a design of three horizontal parallel stripes.
Adidas has declined to comment on the request and representatives of the Black Lives Matter group have also declined to comment at this time.
Adidas has assured the Trademark Office in its application that its brand has been using its logo since 1952, and that it has acquired “international fame and tremendous public recognition”.
Since 2008, Adidas has filed more than 90 lawsuits and entered into more than 200 settlement agreements related to the three-stripes brand, according to court documents in a lawsuit the company filed against the fashion house of designer Thom Browne.
In that case, a jury decided in January that Thom Browne’s stripes did not violate Adidas’ trademark rights.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is the leading entity of the Black Lives Matter movement, which emerged a decade ago to protest police violence against black people. The group applied for a trademark in November 2020 consisting of a yellow three stripe design for use on a variety of products including clothing, publications, bags, bracelets, and mugs.
Adidas believes that the design is confusingly similar to its logo, and that consumers would likely think that their products were connected or came from the same source.
The Trademark Office gave the Black Lives Matter group until May 6 to respond.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
