August 2018. Sportswear multinational Adidas has scored in the US against rival company Sketchers, which launched a look-alike of Adidas’ well-known Stan Smith tennis shoe.

Trade dress

The District Court in Oregon had upheld adidas’ original objection, and recently reaffirmed the decision at appeal. The ruling concluded that Sketchers’ Onix model infringed the ‘trade dress’ – i.e. design and shape – of adidas’ Stan Smith shoe.

Metatag

Another decisive factor was that the Sketchers website had applied the metatag ‘Stan Smith’ to the Onix shoe.