{"id":1638,"date":"2016-12-05T12:51:25","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T17:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/?p=1638"},"modified":"2023-07-25T11:59:40","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T15:59:40","slug":"one-for-the-little-guy-community-church-defeats-adidas-in-trademark-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/2016\/12\/one-for-the-little-guy-community-church-defeats-adidas-in-trademark-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"One for the Little Guy! Community Church Defeats Adidas in Trademark Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2016\/12\/adidas.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1639\" src=\"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2016\/12\/adidas-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"adidas\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2016\/12\/adidas-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2016\/12\/adidas-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2016\/12\/adidas.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As reported by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefashionlaw.com\/home\/adidas-loses-latest-round-in-trademark-battle-with-church\">The Fashion Law<\/a>, Adidas has been trying to register \u201cAdizero,\u201d the name of a line of sneakers, with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) since 2009. Unfortunately for Adidas, the Chicago-based Christian Faith and Fellowship Church had already trademarked \u201cAdd a Zero,\u201d a phrase the church uses on its merchandise, namely shirts and hats. Because of the similarities between the two phrases and the likelihood of consumer confusion, the USPTO refused to trademark \u201cAdizero,\u201d leading Adidas to sue to have the Church\u2019s trademarks cancelled. It offered several arguments as to why the trademarks were invalid, but the main argument considered by the USPTO\u2019s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board was that the church failed to use them in commerce before registration, which is required by the Lanham Act. The church\u2019s only sales were of two hats to a Wisconsin parishioner. The Board ruled for Adidas, finding the church\u2019s sales insufficient to have \u201ca substantial effect on interstate commerce.\u201d However, ruling on the Church\u2019s appeal on Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed. It found that any activity that Congress can regulate under the Commerce Clause satisfies the Lanham Act requirement; therefore, the church\u2019s sale to an out-of-state buyer \u201cfalls comfortably within\u201d the requirement. Moreover, it refused to specify a minimum number of transactions needed to fulfil the requirement. The case has been remanded back to the USPTO Board to consider Adidas\u2019 other arguments.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prudence Ng is an Entertainment Highlight Contributor for the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law and a current first year student at Harvard Law School (Class of 2019).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As reported by The Fashion Law, Adidas has been trying to register \u201cAdizero,\u201d the name of a line of sneakers, with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) since 2009. Unfortunately for Adidas, the Chicago-based Christian Faith and Fellowship Church had already trademarked \u201cAdd a Zero,\u201d a phrase the church uses on its merchandise, namely [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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