The Finnish Customs are to dispose of more than 58,000 pairs of confiscated sports shoes on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, as their stripes have been found to infringe the Adidas trademark.
The shoes were confiscated by Customs officers in Kotka as long ago as October 2003, when the consignment was on its way from China to Russia via Finland. The litigation over their fate has continued for many years.
The trainers will be crushed at the Kymenlaakson Jäte waste treatment plant in Anjalankoski near Kouvola, reports Senior Customs Inspector Anssi Kartila.
”As soon as the weather is a little colder, the crushed shoes will be burned and the heat will be directed to buildings in the Lahti and Heinola region. The method of destruction should be ecological and in compliance with the regulations”, Kartila concluded.
The trademark of the confiscated sports shoes is Heroway. These sneakers come in seven different models, with three or four parallel stripes on the outer side of each shoe.
Adidas filed a lawsuit in the Helsinki District Court against the Lebanese Russian-based entrepreneur who had ordered the shoes from China. Adidas demanded that the shoes be destroyed.
Both the District Court and the Court of Appeal ruled that the Adidas trademark was infringed because the three parallel stripes between the laces and the sole of a sports shoe represent the distinctive Adidas brand.
The Supreme Court did not grant a right of appeal to the recipient of the shoes.
This is the largest batch of shoes disposed of by Finnish Customs for many years.
