Thom Browne allowed to use three-colour stripes despite protest from Adidas

The battle of the stripes continues. Fashion brand Thom Browne has been looking to register its three-colour stripe as a trademark in the EU, but sports brand Adidas wanted to put a stop to it. However, the European Union's intellectual property office blocked Adidas' attempt, allowing Thom Browne to use the stripes, WWD reported.

The reasoning for the decision is the same as in an earlier US court case between the two brands. Because both brands operate in a different segment, sports and luxury fashion, the agency considers it unlikely that consumers will confuse the two brands thanks to the stripes.

Adidas strongly and often protects the use of three stripes in designs. For instance, a case ran between H&M and Adidas between 1997 and 2021 over the use of stripes in the Work Out collection. The battle lasted 24 years, with H&M eventually winning. Adidas also went into battle with K-Swiss, Fitnessworld, Scapa and Nike, among others. Adidas is not the only one fighting the use of a specific stripe pattern - Gucci also protects the use of a blue-red-blue stripe pattern and a green-red-green stripe pattern.