Adidas, based in Herzogenaurach, Germany, sued Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in 2005, accusing the world's biggest retailer of infringing its shoe designs. That case is scheduled to go to trial in October in Portland. Adidas settled its trademark- infringement lawsuit against Sears Holdings Corp.'s Kmart unit, just two days after the German apparel maker was awarded $304.6 million in a similar case over stripes on shoes.
Notice of the settlement was filed yesterday in federal court in Portland, Oregon, and a trial scheduled for July was canceled. Kmart was accused of copying Adidas's three-stripe design motif by selling athletic shoes with sets of two and four stripes. Details of the accord weren't available.
``You can be assured that Adidas wouldn't settle any case pursuant to terms where someone could produce athletic shoes with two parallel stripes; four stripes even more so,'' Jerre Swann, a lawyer for Adidas with the firm Kilpatrick Stockton in Atlanta, said today in a phone interview.
Adidas, the world's second-biggest sporting-goods maker, sued the unit of Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Sears in 2005. A jury in the same court on May 5 issued a $304.6 million verdict against Payless ShoeSource owner Collective Brands Inc. for selling sneakers with sets of two and four parallel stripes.
The three-stripe design was first used by Adidas more than 50 years ago. The company has filed about three dozen such cases against Steven Madden Ltd., Polo Ralph Lauren Corp., Target Corp., Nordstrom Inc. and Abercrombie & Fitch Co. among others. Most cases settled before going to trial.
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