Adidas has filed a trademark infringement claim in the Federal Court of Australia against White Fox Boutique, a Sydney-based online fashion retailer popular with teenagers. The German sportswear company says the retailer’s clothing, which carries four parallel stripes, is deceptively similar to its own three-stripe mark. White Fox is defending the claim, and the matter is listed for hearing in early 2027.
According to court documents, White Fox has used four equal-width stripes in a contrasting colour across several garments and in advertising since March, including on buses, at bus stops and on social media. Adidas asked the retailer in March to withdraw the products and drop the design, and White Fox refused. Adidas also alleges that some White Fox promotions featured genuine Adidas shoes in matching colours, which it says trades on its reputation and could lead shoppers to link the two businesses. Adidas says it has used the mark in Australia for more than 65 years and worldwide for more than 75 years.
In court on Friday, White Fox’s barrister, Ed Heerey KC, argued that the four stripes are decorative and do not function as a trademark, pointing to four-stripe items sold by Princess Polly, Glassons and Shein. The three-stripe design goes back to Adidas’s founding in 1949 and was trademarked in 1952, after the company learned that Finnish brand Karhu had registered the same logo. Founder Adolf Dassler reportedly traded two bottles of whiskey and about 1,600 euros for it.
Adidas has won this kind of fight in Australia before. In 2013 it sued Pacific Brands over four-stripe designs on some Dunlop and Grosby shoes, and the court found three of the 12 designs deceptively similar. Overseas the record is mixed: it lost a US case against designer Thom Browne, and the UK High Court ruled its mark invalid. QUT intellectual property lecturer Dr Muhammad Abbas said a 2023 High Court decision directs courts to consider the impression formed by a notional buyer with imperfect recollection. “Counting stripes is only the start,” he said.
UTS senior lecturer Sarah Hook said Adidas’s Australian registration states that one or two stripes would not infringe, and that White Fox’s choice of four “seems deliberate”. University of Melbourne academic Benjamin Hopper argued the design is so simple that rivals should be free to use it, and suggested White Fox may be seeking publicity, may have been advised the design is lawful, or may have been told Adidas’s registrations could be revoked. Both companies were contacted for comment.
