adidas wins case against three-stripe mark infringer

The Athens Court of First Instance has granted injunctive relief to adidas-Salomon AG against a local company selling shoes adorned with parallel stripes.

The Greek company started selling the shoes in 2002. adidas, which owns a registration in Greece for, among other things, a figurative mark with three parallel black stripes, brought an action seeking injunctive relief.

The court granted the injunction. It found that:

• the adidas three-stripe mark is well known;
  
  
• the stripes on the Greek company's shoes are confusingly similar to the adidas stripes; and
  
  
• the Greek company's use of the stripes was detrimental to the mark's reputation and adidas's sales, even though the shoe producer (i) affixed its own registered trademark to all the shoes, and (ii) had a different consumer base.

Consequently, the court ordered:

• the Greek company to stop producing and putting on the Greek market the infringing products, and to refrain from any infringing behaviour in the future;
  
  
• the sequestration of the shoes still in the Greek company's possession ; and
  
  
• the publication of the court's order in two newspapers.

Afroditi Gouga, Moussas & Tsibris, Athens