The management of the Wimbledon tennis tournament is vigorously fighting off a lawsuit filed by Adidas in early April, intended to exempt it for at least one go from the application of a recent decision by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and by the Grand Slam Committee, which insisted that the Three Stripes should be regarded as a trademark and should therefore be considerably downsized and handled like the Swoosh and the manufacturer’s identification used by other competing brands. Under the new rules, which are meant to go into effect with the opening of the Wimbledon tournament on June 26, company logos should not measure more than four square inches, and the rules specify that this also applies to the Three Stripes that have been prominently featured until now on the sleeves, the collar and the sides of Adidas tennis apparel.
Adidas complains that the ITF and the Grand Slam Committee unilaterally decided to change the rules without a continuous dialogue with the company and with the industry, as the International Olympic Committee had done before, involving the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry in the process. Adidas says it was informed about the final decision only last February, giving the company insufficient time to respond and to adapt the designs of its garments. The Big a therefore filed suit with the High Court of Justice in London in early April, to be served on both organizations. The company applied for a temporary injunction that would prevent the introduction of the new rules at Wimbledon, pending a full trial. It also filed a claim for alleged damages incurred as a consequence of the ruling.
Wimbledon’s management counters that it has been in touch with Adidas about the stripes since May of last year. The Grand Slam Committee says it then informed Adidas that it could no longer regard the Three Stripes as a design, because the size of the stripes and the marketing around them had gone out of hand. It therefore summoned Adidas to adjust its apparel for this year’s tournament. In January, the same committee agreed to enlarge the size of all acceptable logos, including the Three Stripes, and gave Adidas time until the opening of Wimbledon to adjust. As the committee sees it, Adidas was thus given more than one year overall to change its designs.
Wimbledon’s management defends the rule changes as an effort to “maintain a tasteful and professional dress code, which does not turn players into walking advertising hoardings.” It further points out that rules should apply impartially to all. This position has been defended vocally by Horst Widmann, president of the European sporting goods federation (FESI), and vice president of Puma.
The status of the Three Stripes caused much debate in the industry in relation to their display in the Olympic Games. Issuing a ruling similar to the one later adopted by the Grand Slam, the IOC finally led Adidas to be treated like the other brands, effective with the Turin Olympics, after one last reprieve at Athens Olympics. While accepting the notion that its Three Stripes are indeed a trademark, Adidas has continued to insist with other sports bodies that their display on certain parts of the garment should not be regarded in the same way as its distinctive performance logo, but rather as a “an integral part of the product” that differentiates it from those of other manufacturers. The company has reached a compromise along these lines with the ATP, another international body that organizes leading tennis tournaments other than the Grand Slam series, allowing it to use the Three Stripes with certain detailed restrictions but still in a much larger format than the four square inches demanded by the ITF.
