adidas AG has sued to stop a US sporting goods retailer and a skateboarding equipment maker from selling sneakers with three parallel diagonal stripes, a design it said looks too much like its own.
The world’s second largest sporting goods company claimed that sneakers made by World Industries Inc and sold by Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp are knock-offs that infringe many adidas trademarks.
adidas first used the three-stripe motif in 1952 and began trademarking it in the US in 1994.
(Source: CNBC)