FirstCuts: adidas lands $305M in Lawsuit

File this under “Things parent companies probably can’t afford.” A federal jury in Portland has ordered that Payless Shoesource Inc. must pay $304.6 million to adidas for “willfully infringing” the three-stripe trademark logo.↵↵Payless? More like Paylots and go out of business probably! (Bah-zing!) [Ed. Note: Seriously, folks, he’ll be here all night. Tip your waitress.] I’m really torn on this. On the one hand, there are so many knockoffs of so many types of shoes. I’ve said all along that many of the Starbury shoes, which are economically priced from $8.99 to $14.99, are major knockoffs of New Balance 574s, Dunks, Air Force 1s and many more if you want to really scrutinize them.↵

↵↵But the issue seems to be the use of the three-stripe logo itself, not an eerily similar shoe shape. And I don’t know, I guess adidas owns that three-stripe logo, but does an extra line (or a line taken away, as was the case with two- and four-stripe logos) equal a fine of nearly $305M? Evidently it does.↵

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