Adidas AG (Herzogenaurach, Germany) has filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (Bentonville, Ark.) for using two- and four-stripe motifs on its sneakers. Adidas claims the stripes are similar to its trademarked three stripes.
The case will begin hearing in the federal court of Portland, Ore., in October, the same court in which Adidas was awarded $305 million last month in a lawsuit against Payless ShoeSource (Topeka, Kan.) over its use of parallel stripes, a sum believed by Adidas’ lawyer to be the largest ever in a trademark case.
Adidas began using the three-stripe insignia in 1952 and trademarked in 1994. Since then, it has fought dozens of copyright battles, including earlier disputes with Wal-Mart in 1995 and in 2002, when Wal-Mart agreed not to sell products deemed confusingly similar.