Smiling, fashion designer Thom Browne has emerged from a New York courthouse victorious over sportswear giant Adidas in a battle over signature stripes.

Adidas had claimed the striped designs used by Thom Browne Inc were too similar to its own three stripes.

Browne said he hoped the preservation of his striped designs on luxury athletic clothing and accessories would inspire others whose work is challenged by larger clothing producers.

“It was important to fight and tell my story,” Browne said after a Manhattan federal court jury sided with him.

“And I think it’s more important and bigger than me, because I think I was fighting for every designer that creates something and has a bigger company come after them later.”

Adidas indicated in a statement that the fight might go on.

Browne, a highly creative designer known for his theatrical runway shows, began selling clothing in 2001 at a boutique in Manhattan’s West Village.

He has since become hugely successful, especially after a 2018 deal with luxury brand Zegna.

His company is now featured in more than 300 locations, including Tokyo, London, Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Milan.

Adidas sued Browne in June 2021, saying his “Four-Bar Signature” — along with other products featuring parallel stripes on activewear including T-shirts, sweatpants and hoodies — infringed on its own well-known trademark.

The two-week trial concluded when the eight-person jury returned its verdict in less than two hours.

Browne’s courtroom supporters erupted in joy before US District Judge Jed Rakoff scolded them for violating courtroom decorum.

Supporters later spilled into the hallway, some celebrating with hugs and tears.

The dispute goes back 15 years.

In 2007, Adidas complained that Browne was using a three-stripe design too similar to theirs on a jacket.

Browne agreed to stop using it and shifted to a four-stripe design.

For years, Adidas did not argue with that — but as Browne became more prominent after the 2018 sale, he began expanding further into activewear and the sportswear giant took notice.

Adidas argued in its lawsuit that Browne’s stripes could confuse customers.

Browne, in turn, has argued that the two companies are not direct competitors and don’t serve the same market.

A pair of women’s compression tights on Browne’s website costs $725, for example. A pair of Adidas leggings is well under $100 on that company’s site.

Jeff Trexler, a faculty member at the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School, said the trademark landscape had become more nuanced in a shifting marketplace where companies expand regularly into new categories — in both content and price — and collaborate on special lines with others.

More and more, he said, companies aren’t staying in the lanes in which they began.

“It’s like in Ghostbusters where you know if you cross the streams, everything will blow up,” Mr Trexler said.

As long as Browne put the stripes “on a man’s sport coat and his narrow luxury goods, maybe the occasional pair of sweat pants”, Mr Trexler said there wasn’t a crossing of the streams.

But as he expanded more into activewear, the streams crossed.

Browne himself testified during the trial, noting the importance of sports in his life and how it carried through to his career.

The former competitive swimmer said outside the courthouse that he grew up playing tennis and others in his large family enjoyed basketball, baseball and football.

“So it’s very authentic to who I am as a person,” he said.

“It’s something that inspires me every day in regards to what I do.”

He said he counted many professional athletes among his friends and customers and considered them a “huge inspiration”.

Mr Trexler noted that Browne’s lawyers had successfully convinced jurors that Browne was an underdog.

Browne said he hoped the courtroom fight was his last.

“I just want to design collections and I don’t want to ever be in a courtroom ever again,” he said.

AP