The Three Stripes takes another step against Thom Browne
It may be just three, thick parallel lines, but Adidas isn't letting anyone employ them, even if they look different; even if there are four, not three stripes. After losing the initial case brought against Thom Browne in January, Adidas has filed for a second round of trademark infringement trial. Earlier in the year, the jury concluded that Mr Browne was not liable for the damages Adidas had said to have incurred when the products with Thom Browne's four stripes were sold. "Back to business," the Thom Browne Instagram page commented the day after the court ruling—relief rather palpable. To be sure, the brand has been using stripes in twos and threes as well throughout their existence. And they have applied them differently to the way Adidas uses theirs. Mr Browne testified in court, "The last thing I wanted to do was get into a fight with a big company like Adidas," as reported by Vogue Business.
But Adidas did not appear to be of the same mind set—the fighting part. The German sneaker giant didn't agree with certain aspects s of the precedings in court, so they decided to give it another shot. According to WWD, Adidas was of the believe that the judge "had given the jury incorrect instructions regarding confusion that might result at the point-of-sale and requested a new trial." In the latest filings, it stated that "confusion need not occur at point-of-sale but can also occur either during the 'initial interest' or 'post-sale' phase". It is not clear who Adidas was referring to when they spoke of the "confusion" that occurred, if at all. Do they really think consumers these days are clueless? Thom Browne merchandise are mostly sold in the brand's eponymous boutiques or specialty stores such as Dover Street Market. The customers at these points-of-sale are unlikely to be confused by the stripes on Thom Browne's merchandise and those on Adidas's. The German Three Stripes really should give shoppers everywhere more credit than they have in court.
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