Adidas Retracts Opposition Against BLM Trademark Application


Two days after it filed a complaint with the U.S. Trademark Office about the image, Adidas is pulling its objection to a Black Lives Matter trademark application that shows three parallel stripes.

Adidas sent a notice of opposition to the office on Monday. In it, it said it didn’t agree with the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation’s request to trademark three parallel yellow stripes on things like clothing and bags.

The company said that if Black Lives Matter was allowed to use the stripes, it would be “confusingly similar” to its three-stripe mark, which it has used on its products since at least 1952.

Adidas said on Wednesday that it had changed its mind.

Adidas said in a prepared statement that it would drop its objection to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation’s trademark application as soon as possible.

It didn’t say anything more about why it was pulling the application.

Adidas has fought hard for years to protect its triple-stripe trademark. Fashion designer Thom Browne beat Adidas in court over signature stripes in January. In that case, Adidas also said that Thom Browne Inc.’s striped designs were too similar to its own three stripes. The jury in the federal court in Manhattan agreed with Browne.