adidas Sues Puma Three Stripes Design Soccer Cleats

According to Law360, adidas has recently filed a lawsuit against rival footwear and apparel manufacturer PUMA over a pair of soccer cleats that the German-based label is claiming to be infringing on its trademark design — the “Three-Stripes.” On the alleged cleats, PUMA’s model dons a four-stripe look, but they are diagonal and looks a bit too similar to the famed adidas branding. Those who may not be so inclined to clearly determine the difference could mistake the shoe for an adidas-built release.

“Puma’s use of four diagonal stripes on the side of the infringing cleat is a blatant attempt by Puma to trade on the goodwill and commercial magnetism adidas has built up in the three-stripe mark and to free-ride on adidas’s fame as a preeminent soccer brand,” adidas said in a statement.

It’s not the first time adidas and PUMA have had legal feuds — adidas once tried to prevent PUMA from selling its popular NRGY shoe, a style similar to the Three Stripes’s “Boost” kicks. And recently, adidas went after Tesla over a three-stripe branding over the car manufacturer’s Model 3.

“Puma is not only a direct competitor, but shares a mutual history with Adidas,” the company wrote. “Puma is thus intimately familiar with adidas’s three-stripe mark and the enormous goodwill it represents.”

A representative from PUMA has not responded to the suit as of yet according to Law360.

You can read the official filing of the suit here. The image below is the Puma soccer cleat in question. Do you feel that it infringes on adidas’s ”three stripes?”