"Three Bars" Trademark Is Invalid. What Will Adidas Lose?

Adidas has also lost its hands, such as losing in its ever conquering. trademark In the war, it was labeled "invalid" by the government at one stroke, and the label was also attached to the "three bars" of Adidas's life. For this trademark, Adidas has passed Puma and Tesla, and has attracted numerous enterprises. This time the balance has finally been tilted. But for the huge Adidas, the decision of the European Court seems more like an addition to it than a great harm to Adidas.

Invalid three bars

Adidas is muddled. Beijing time 20, the Wall Street Journal Chinese net reported that a European Court ruled on Wednesday that Adidas's three bar logo was invalid. According to the European Court of justice, the logo is just an ordinary graphic symbol, and has no corresponding uniqueness. In addition, the Court maintained the decision of the EU Intellectual Property Office to withdraw the trademarks of the three bars in 2016.

"We are disappointed with the EU's decision." In the statement, Adidas summed it up. But this loss obviously can not be eaten. Adidas said that the ruling was limited to the special conditions of three stripes, which would only affect the specific use of the logo, and did not affect Adidas's wide variety of three stripe markings in Europe.

It is understood that Adidas has a total of three major series, namely sports performance series performance, traditional sports originals series and sports. fashion In the series Neo, their trademarks are three bar, clover and round Logo respectively. It is worth noting that both the three bars themselves or the clover and the ball shaped Logo, the three bars are all essential elements in the mixing.

After all, the most primitive three bars are equivalent to Adidas's "initial heart". It is understood that the three bars were born in 1949. That year, Adidas founder AdiDassler first used three parallel stripes on shoes, and then became the iconic pattern of Adidas. Reuters quoted David Haig, chief executive of BrandFinance, a consultancy, as saying that the ruling could weaken Adidas. brand The value of the brand is as high as 14 billion 300 million US dollars at present, and the "three key bars that are important but identifiable are also the main contributors to the logo".

In regard to the attitude of Adidas to the judgment, and whether the judgment will affect the company, the Beijing Commercial Daily reporter contacted the head of Adidas headquarters media liaison center, but as of press release, no specific reply has yet been received.

Crazy Adidas

In the field of trademark maintenance, Adidas is crazy. In 2014, Adidas registered the three bars as trademarks, but it was immediately challenged by Shoe BrandingEurope. It is also widely accepted that the cancellation of the trade marks by the Intellectual Property Office has a great relationship with the latter three.

Interestingly, in August last year, the General Court of the European Union just ruled that Adidas could be prevented from applying for the trademark registration of "two bars" of Shoe Branding Europe. At that time, ShoeBranding Europe appealed that their two bar markers had coexisted with Adidas's three bars for decades, and the stripes of different lengths were enough to distinguish their "two bar" signs and Adidas's "three bars" trademarks.

"I don't want to use my bar and I can't do a few bars" has become the most appropriate description of Adidas. After all, Adidas has been involved in the trademark war for more than Shoe BrandingEurope, and the most popular among them is to kill each other in love with Puma.

Two years ago, Adidas put Puma on the court because Adidas thought that Puma's brand shoes with four slashes for decoration had violated Adidas's trademark rights. It is worth noting that if the previous one hundred years, Adidas and Puma came from the same German shoe factory called Darth.

In the same year when Adidas was suing Puma for trademark infringement, Tesla, who was reluctant to build cars, was not immune. At that time, Tesla extended the trademark registration scope of the three bars originally used on Model 3Sedan to the clothing category, and directly let Adidas explode the temple.

Nike, Skech, Forever 21, Marc Jacobs, and Alfa entertainment have been caught. CraigWhitney, a trademark lawyer in Frankfurt, once explained that Nike logo is very simple, unlike Nike's tag mark and LV's printing of LV. Once there are too many similar signs on the market, Adidas will become mediocre and not bright enough.

Ordinary trademark

No unique feature is the bull's eye of Adidas's defeat. "Trademark is the most basic condition to distinguish the source of goods." In an interview with the Beijing Commercial Daily reporter, Li Hongjiang, senior partner and lawyer of Zhong Mao law firm, said that for many enterprises, trademark is important because it represents the source and quality of goods. The trademark is equivalent to giving the consumer a logo, which can distinguish the source of the goods. Similar trademarks are likely to be mistaken.

It is also a symbol that is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Compared with the old LouisVuitton dark pattern, Adidas's "three bars" may be short of soul. Li Hongjiang further analyzed that trademark should be unique and unique, so there is no way to distinguish it. "Sweet" is an ordinary evaluation of food taste, but if it is used as a trademark, there is no significant difference. The most fundamental requirement for trademark requirements is significant. The first is to be different from other labels, to respond to the raw materials and effects of specific commodities. Secondly, we should not monopolize the signs and designs belonging to the public.

For Adidas's logo, Li Hongjiang analysis said: "the three bars are not too strong, and there are too few differences with other people, and this logo may also coincide with very simple actions and strokes belonging to the public. Therefore, from these two points of view, it is not fair to apply for trademark. In fact, after a long period of use, Adidas's' three bars' has gained a certain degree of significance, but it is still easy to confuse, so the EU court's decision is still more reasonable. "

Li Hongjiang said that now the independence of the judiciary, the validity of the European court decision is limited to the European Union and can not be directly applied to other regions, so the effective range of this judgment is limited. Moreover, in Europe, some of them are three instance final adjudication system, so Adidas can also appeal. DavidStone, director of global intellectual property rights at Allen&Overy law firm, also said that the failure of the trademark would not have much practical impact, because Adidas had registered trademarks in three specific stripes.