Ending a trademark dispute that began in 1997, the Dutch Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by Adidas against a lower court’s ruling that a two-stripe logo used by Hennes & Mauritz did not infringe on its iconic Three Stripes. A key factor in H&M’s success was a market research report according to which there was only a 10 percent likelihood that consumers would think that Adidas was the maker of H&M’s “Work-Out” line of apparel, which featured two stripes on its sleeves and legs. The case went through two other Dutch courts. The first one upheld Adidas’ trademark infringement case, but its ruling was overturned by the Hague Court of Appeals in January 2020.

Topics