Developing a trade mark requires a lot of thought and great creativity. Depending on the degree of creative activity, copyright protection may arise. This can have far-reaching consequences for the later use of the trade mark.
Who wouldn’t want a simple logo for their company that also best embodies the company’s goodwill while being recognised everywhere? adidas is the owner of such a logo. You know, the three stripes. However, adidas has failed in its attempt to extend the three-stripe protection.
Under what conditions can simple figurative signs be protected as trade marks? Even 12,000 pages of evidence of use were insufficient to prove the registrability of an additional adidas three-stripe mark in this important case.