Although they may have thought they were within their legal limits, the executives at Payless Shoesource were operating on the edge of trademark law.
Sure, Payless was selling shoes modeled after some of the best-selling shoes made by German-based Adidas-Salomon (now Adidas). The Payless shoes had stripes that were similar to Adidas’ three-stripe trademark. And many of the shoes had a style similar to the trade dress of Adidas’ Superstar line. Payless employees even referred to them as Adidas knockoffs.
