Adidas, the brand with (two) or three stripes.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) recently ruled in favor of Adidas following its opposition to Shoe Branding Europe's application for registration of a Community trademark.

Shoe Branding Europe applied for a trademark featuring two stripes, which was opposed by the famous German shoe manufacturing company.

The opposition was initially rejected by both the OHIM Opposition Division and the Board of Appeal, both arguing that Adidas's three-stripe trademark could only be protected against identical or similar imitations and that, in this case, there were sufficient differences to preclude a likelihood of confusion on the part of the public (particularly the number of stripes, their inclination, and their position). Adidas successfully appealed to the General Court, which held that the Board had erred in holding that the trademarks were distinct and that, since Adidas was renowned for its three-stripe trademark, this was sufficient to establish a likelihood of confusion on the part of the public and a case of trademark infringement.

Shoe Branding appealed to the CJEU, which upheld the General Court's decision in its entirety, stating that the differences between the two trademarks were insignificant and that "the difference between two and three stripes depicted on a shoe is not sufficient to undermine the similarities resulting from the representation of the signs in question and their position on the side of the shoe." The CJEU held that the slight differences between the trademarks in question were not likely to attract the attention of an average consumer and influence the overall impression created by the trademarks, given the presence on the market of numerous slanted stripes on the side of the shoe.