Football Shirt Culture.com

Sorry if this has been discussed before but how do online companies like http://www.theretroproject.com/ get around the copyright law regarding copying old shirts. They appear to be producing retro shirts with makers logos including the famous Adidas 'three stripes'.
Is this legal or are they just gambling the companies concerned don't notice.

I know what you mean. I''ve been seeing these fake retro shirts on Ebay also and they are using club badges.

I don't know why they are still there as they should have been noticed by now. Are the big brands sleeping?? Wake up Adidas, Umbro, Admiral..

I mean, if Admiral sold a shirt like this they would be a winner.

I wonder if it would be legal to incorporate 'three stripes' on a fashion/sports top or would Adidas complain? You would think puting simple stripes on a shirt would be classed only as a design element and not something that could be copyrighted. It would be interesting to see if challenged how Adidas would react. And who a court of law would side with. There are so many great shirts that deserve the retro treatment but because of copyright will never see the light of day. Maybe retro shirt specialists Toffs could strike an aggreement with Adidas to produce classic three stripe shirts. They already do a Scotland 1978 World Cup shirt, complete with Umbro sleeve diamonds. So you never know some lesser known clubs 1970's/80's shirts may yet see the light of day.
<br><br>Post edited by: vigilante, at: 2007/09/23 06:56

In 2003, Adidas filed a lawsuit in British court challenging Fitness World Trading's use of a two-stripe motif similar to Adidas's three stripes. The court ruled that despite the simplicity of the mark, Fitness World's use was infringing because the public could establish a link between that use and Adidas's mark.


This is the link:

www.guardian.co.uk/business/2003/jul/11/marketingandpr.media