Adidas Has Sued Pretty Much Everyone Who Has Used Stripes

Earlier this week, Adidas lost a trademark battle over its iconic three-stripe logo after a European Union court ruled it wasn’t “distinctive” enough to merit broadened protections. The court’s decision is the latest in the German sneaker giant’s incredibly long history of trying to elbow out any company that dares to use stripes. The three-stripe symbol was first registered by Adidas founder Adolf “Adi” Dassler in the 1950s after he bought it off of a small Finnish sportswear brand called Karhu, which had beat him to it. The brand’s trefoil logo appeared alongside the stripes on shoes and apparel in the 1970s, but the three-stripe motif was reintroduced as the sole logo on Adidas footwear and apparel in 1997. Since then, the shoe company has been waging war on all those who attempt to infringe on the logo, including companies that use two, four, and even up to seven stripes in designs. Read more at Quartz.