describe adidas' ip strategy

Along with the general shift prominently visible in most businesses, Adidas – maybe even earlier than most companies- has understood that intangible assets are more valuable. Therefore, as we see in the case presented, it has formed a comprehensive IP strategy not only to protect its rights, but also to create value through them and hugely benefit. Adidas: • Having “Exclusivity” in mind, created proprietary market advantage, increased competitiveness and stopped its competitors. • Practices and exploits its IPRs. (Has successfully maintained its Trademark and constantly uses it on all its products. ) • Even though litigation is mostly associated with patents, Adidas very cleverly uses litigation as the main tool of value creation through close monitoring of Trademarks similar to its own. As mentioned in the case, having over fifty lawsuits only in the last five years clearly shows that Adidas takes infringement quite seriously and would not let any other company take unfair advantage of its trademark. • In a defensive manner, Adidas has created and aura of fear, deterring all potential competitors. (Just by making public the $65 million it won in the Payless Shoes case, future infringers will surely be deterred). o However, it is worth noting that with the information given by the question, we cannot decide whether Adidas has adopted a “defensive patenting” strategy, i. e. filing patents only to provide basis for counter-infringement claims. • Last but not least, Adidas has over 170 subsidiaries in Asia, Europe and America, while also forming partnerships all over the world. This shows not only the wise use of licensing in value creation, but also building an outstanding portfolio, enhancing its financial performance and becoming a “multimillionaire, multinational” company like no other. As an afterthought, the fact that Adidas gained publicity after German football team won the World Cup game using its creation, should somehow be taken into consideration when contemplating the value creation model used. Maybe not a model, but getting good publicity will help businesses better implement their other IP strategies and is definitely an advantage in comparison to their competitors. (Take the recent decrease in Coca Cola’s market value as an example, after Ronaldo refused to drink a bottle of coke presented to him. )