What happens when you’re accused of trying to rip off an internationally famous sportswear brand like Adidas? You get cleaned out by the said internationally famous sportswear brand, and it isn’t pretty.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 15th of August, 2019, Zhejiang, a Zagreb-based company which is under Chinese ownership, will have to destroy all of its sports shoes which are reminiscent of Adidas and its famous logo, and will need to reimburse the German company for the hefty legal fees incurred, the Commercial Court ruled this week.
According to a report on the matter by Vecernji list, the most bizarre part of the whole story about the dispute over the trademark of the world’s most famous and highly respected sportswear company, is the fact that Zhejiang’s trainers from Zagreb had four lines on them, unlike the well known and much loved ”brand with the three stripes”.
The court found that in all other respects, however, the footwear in question was unarguably reminiscent of the famous trademark, but of course, the Zagreb-based company did not share that view. The footwear was labelled ”Boban”, and from Zhejiang, they claim that these trainers have gained a reputation on the market and have “a distinctive character that distinguishes them from the rest.”
From the all powerful Adidas, they state that as far back as in 2014, they first received information that the defendant was selling sports shoes/trainers with four parallel sloping lines on the sides of the footwear being sold at the outlet located on Samoborska Street (Ulica) in the Croatian capital city of Zagreb. They tried to resolve the dispute peacefully, but they were met with no understanding at all, eventually leading to the outcome ruled by the Commercial Court, in Adidas’ favour.
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