WIPR reports about an interesting trade mark case from US. It concerns an opposition filed by the German sportswear company Adidas against the following application for US mark by F.C. Barcelona:
This mark is applied for the following goods:
Class 16 – Paper; cardboard; goods made from paper, namely, boxes of paper, packing paper; goods made from cardboard, namely, boxes of cardboard, cardboard packaging; bookbinding materials; artists’ materials, namely, artists’ pens, artists’ brushes, artists’ pastels; paintbrushes; typewriters; office requisites, namely, adhesive tape dispensers, correcting fluid for type, finger-stalls, franking machines, envelope sealing machines, punches, rubber bands, staplers; printed instructional or teaching materials in the fields of sports; printing type; printed magazines, books, pamphlets, catalogs, printed prospectus, newspapers, and printed periodicals, all in the fields of sports; placards of paper or cardboard; paper labels; posters; prints; photographs; stationery; plastic bags and film for packaging; adhesives for stationery or household purposes; printing blocks
Class 25 – Shirts, tee-shirts, blouses, blousons, parkas, jackets, trousers, gloves, socks, stockings, underwear, pajamas, nightgowns, vests, cloaks, shawls, coats, scarves, jerseys, skirts, dresses, neckties, belts, suspenders, bathing suits; sportswear, namely, basketball jerseys, soccer shorts and jerseys, cloth nappies, boas for wearing around the neck, non-electric foot muffs and biretta, cloth bibs, half belts, ski gloves, skateboard gloves, riding gloves, pumps, stoles, brassieres, liveries, shirt fronts, pelisses, pelerines, slips, hosiery; caps, raincoats, anoraks; overalls; stoles; suits; chemises; footwear and headwea.
Class 28 – Games, namely, board games; toys, namely, dolls, action figures; gymnastic and sporting articles, namely, gloves for goalkeepers, hockey golf gloves, footballs, soccer balls, basketballs, basketball nets, tennis balls, nets, rackets, racket covers, racket strings, racket presses and uprights, soccer knee pads, leg pads, elbow pads and goal nets, head guards for karate; articles for hunting or fishing, namely, fishing poles, hunting blinds, hunting bows; decorations for Christmas trees; playing cards
The opposition is based on a family of earlier marks for ‘Three-stripe’ have been using by Addidas since 1952 in US.Some of them are:
According to the company the similar stripes containing in the later mark could create consumer confusion and can injure the company’s interests in the US market.
The result from this case is forthcoming and it is an exciting example for protection of figurative trademarks in practice.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PLANET 