Art Basel has slapped a lawsuit on Adidas

The lawsuit says that Adidas sneakers bear the Art Basel trademark without permission.

Art Basel is a famous art fest. Since 1999 its name and mark have been used internationally, in connection with art fair expositions around the world and related goods.

To use the Art Basel mark, the art fest does license partners. Among these are internationally well-known entities such as Audemar Piguet watches ,BMW and Davidoff cigars. However Adidas does not happen to be on that list.

It goes on to say that Adidas enjoyed the benefits of an exclusive license of the Art Basel mark without paying for or obtaining a license and, therefore, has been unjustly enriched through its unauthorized infringement of the mark.

Art Basel claims that Adidas’ placement of the Art Basel mark on the sneakers, hang tags and boxes, which each also bear Adidas’ marks, deliberately misrepresents an association, show partnership, sponsorship or other affiliation between Art Basel and Adidas and misrepresents the origin of the sneakers.

This is ironical considering that over the last couple of years Adidas has been pursuing litigation and infringement-related lawsuits against the likes of Forever 21, Italian fashion brand Bally, Skechers and Marc Jacobs.