Adidas has pulled back a request asking the US Trademark Office to block a trademark request by Black Lives Matter (BLM) regarding a design featuring three parallel stripes. The company did not give any reason for the withdrawal. “Adidas will withdraw its opposition to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation’s trademark application as soon as possible,” a spokesperson for Adidas said.
Earlier on Monday, the German sportswear company in a filing said that the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) design will create confusion with Adidas’s branding which it has been using for more than 70 years. The proposed BLMGNF design “incorporates three stripes in a manner that is confusingly similar to the three-stripe mark in appearance and overall commercial impression,” the company’s opposition statement said.
Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) applied for a US trademark for a yellow three-striped design in November 2020, which it wants to use on its merchandise. But Adidas was against the design, saying that the design had gained “international fame and tremendous public recognition” and will lead to confusion.
Consumers “are likely to assume” that the goods and services with the said design “originate from the same source, or that they are affiliated, connected, or associated with or sponsored by Adidas”, the company had said in its earlier statement.
BLMGNF was founded following the killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in 2012. It grabbed headlines during the global protests against the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in 2020.
Earlier this year, Adidas had lost a court case against luxury brand Thom Browne it had filed to stop the brand from using a four-stripe design it said was extremely similar to its three stripes.
(With inputs from agencies)
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