Adidas loses three-stripe trademark battle in European court

Logo first registered on a football boot in 1949 was not 'distinctive' enough, says court

Adidas has lost a battle to expand its trademark three-stripe design in the EU, after a court ruled that it was not "distinctive" enough.

The company did not "prove that that mark has acquired, throughout the territory of the EU, distinctive character following the use which had been made of it", the general court of the European Union said on Wednesday.