Lawyer Who Claimed Adidas Infringed His Trademark for 'We Not Me' Loses on One Claim
A federal magistrate has rejected part of an Illinois lawyer’s lawsuit that claimed Adidas infringed on his registered trademarks for the phrase, “We not me.”
The lawyer, W. Brand Bobosky of suburban Naperville, had claimed Adidas infringed his trademarks when it used the phrase in a 2007 “Basketball is a Brotherhood” marketing campaign, the National Law Journal reports. Bobosky had started using “We not me” on lapel pins when he became Naperville Rotarian President in 2000, and filed trademark applications in August 2004 and March 2008.
But U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Papak of Oregon invalidated the registrations in a Dec. 29 opinion (PDF) that found Bobosky did not intend to use the trademark for all the types of clothing and merchandise he listed on his applications. “A recent ruling of the Trademark Board indicates that proof of a lack of bona fide intent to use even one item in a class of goods on an intent-to-use application invalidates the application for that entire class,” Papak wrote.
Papak allowed Bobosky to pursue an unfair competition claim against Adidas. Bobosky appeared undaunted in an interview with the NLJ. “The fact that it is not registered does not deplete or delete the claim if there’s found to be an unregistered trademark that has been infringed on,” Bobosky said. “I’m optimistic because the infringement was there. … We survived summary judgment, and that’s big.”
