Adidas Drops Trademark Dispute with BLM to Avoid Alienating Racial-Justice Movement
Forty-eight hours after asking the U.S. trademark Office to reject a Black Lives Matter trademark application, German sporting apparel giant Adidas is backing down.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the company was concerned the trademark dispute would be misinterpreted as Adidas standing against the movement’s cause. “Adidas will withdraw its opposition to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation’s trademark application as soon as possible,” a company statement read.
At issue is the yellow three-stripe logo design Black Lives Matter filed a trademark application for in 2020. In Adidas’s view, that logo has a clear resemblance to the company’s classic three stripes.
In a detailed filing Monday, the German company explained it is comprehensively associated with the logo and that its extensive use of the logo provides it with common-law rights. Additionally, “Adidas owns numerous federal trademark registrations for the Three-Stripe Mark for footwear, apparel, accessories, and related goods,” the filing read.
“Notwithstanding Adidas’s prior rights, and well after the Three-Stripe Mark became famous, [Black Lives Matter] filed the Application to register Applicant’s Mark for use in connection with inter alia, “Bags…Clothing” and many other accessories, the company explained.
“There is no issue to priority,” wrote Adidas, adding that the use of the logo by Black Lives Matter would cause confusion and deception, and any “defect, objection, or fault found with the goods and services offered or sold under Applicant’s mark would reflect on and injure Adidas’s reputation.”
Furthermore, its use by Black Lives Matter would dilute the distinctiveness of the Three-Stripe Mark, the company said. “Such registration would be a source of damage or injury to Opposer.”
Despite the forceful filing, the company decided all of the benefits to ensuring the Black Lives Matter trademark application is rejected were outweighed by the risk — the risk of being misinterpreted as against the cause.
Since 2008, Adidas has filed over 90 lawsuits and signed more than 200 settlement agreements related to the three-stripe trademark, as court documents in a dispute against Thom Browne’s fashion house revealed. In that case, the jury found Thom Browne’s four-stripe motif did not violate the trademark.
Adidas is already struggling financially after ending the lucrative Yeezy contract with Kanye West for his antisemitic public remarks. The company is now under the leadership of Bjørn Gulden, who is attempting to lead Adidas through the West fiasco, as well as a ruptured deal with Beyoncé and sales that are tanking in China, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Black Lives Matter has been criticized for pragmatic financial moves in the past. Last year, the organization refused to apologize for using donor funds to buy a multi-million dollar mansion, calling criticism “inflammatory and speculative.”
The 7,400-square-foot mansion located in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles cost $6 million. The organization purchased it tax-free because of the group’s nonprofit status. The 1930s-era property — once visited by, among others, Marilyn Monroe and Humphrey Bogart — has six bedrooms, a swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, a two-person guest house, a music studio, and parking space for 20 cars.
Millions in donations have also been diverted to consultants and other expenses, instead of BLM chapters, grassroots groups, and the families of police brutality victims.
