adidas Sues Forever 21 Over Its Signature Three-Stripe Design Again

German sportswear giant, adidas is suing the fast-fashion retailer, Forever 21 for using it's trademarked three-stripe design on its athletic apparel.

Courtesy of Forever 21

According to Women’s Wear Daily, adidas took Forever 21 to federal court for “using a three-stripe design on a range of apparel, athletic wear, and shoes that is ‘confusingly similar’ to (its) well-known and long-trademarked three-stripe design.” The complaint also alleges that Forever 21 is selling counterfeit merchandise on its website.



“The infringing apparel and footwear and counterfeit apparel imitates adidas’s three-stripe mark (and, in the case of the counterfeit apparel, the adidas wordmark and the badge of sport mark) in a manner that is likely to cause consumer confusion and deceive the public regarding their source, sponsorship, or affiliation,” the complaint read.

Back in March, Forever 21 called adidas a “bully” and then counter-sued, saying that the athletic brand was getting out of hand with its trademark, taking it to mean that “no item of clothing can have any number of stripes in any location.” But Forever 21 backed down and dropped its complaint two weeks later.

adidas takes pride in protecting its trademark. Over the years, the sportswear company had filed complaints against Juicy Couture, Marc Jacobs, Puma, Bally, Skechers and Nasty Gal over the related issue.