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Articoli Correlati: Adidas - EU trade mark

On 1 March 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union, in the joined cases T-85/16 and T-629/16 stated that the marks applied for in the case risk taking unfair advantage of Adidas’ earlier mark representing three parallel stripes on a shoe. In 2009 and 2011, the Belgian company Shoe Branding Europe filed an application with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) for registration of two E.U. trade marks, one for footwear and the other for safety footwear. The German company Adidas opposed registration of those trade marks. By decisions of 2015 and 2016, EUIPO allowed Adidas’ oppositions and refused registration of the two marks applied for by Shoe Branding Europe. By today’s judgments, the General Court dismissed the actions brought by Shoe Branding Europe against EUIPÒs two decisions and confirmed the latter. According to the Court, EUIPO did not commit an error of assessment in finding, in particular, it likely that the use of the marks applied for would take unfair advantage of the repute of Adidas’ mark and that Shoe Branding Europe had not demonstrated the existence of due cause for the use of the marks applied for.