German sporting goods giant Adidas filed a lawsuit against American retailer of casual clothing and accessories Abercrombie & Fitch Co. The suit, launched in U.S. District Court in Portland on December 23, argues that Abercrombie copied the design for its latest line of casual wear apparel featured in an online Christmas catalogue.

According to the complaint, the offending merchandise includes several pairs of pants and a zip-up sweatshirt, all adorned with three parallel stripes, which resemble the company’s trademark three-stripe logo, registered by the founder of Adidas, Adi Dassler, in 1949. As reports The Canadian Press, Adidas America Inc., the Portland-based U.S. subsidiary of Adidas-Salomon AG, asked the court to order the impoundment and destruction of all the offending apparel, as well as any bags, boxes, labels, tags or promotional material that accompanied the merchandise.

Abercrombie & Fitch spokesman Thomas Lennox said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

In 1996 and 2002, Adidas already had an experience of making a complaint to the New Albany, Ohio-based clothing retailer about apparel which used a look-alike design. In both cases Abercrombie & Fitch agreed to withdraw the products from the line, although the company emphasized it did not believe the products infringed on the Adidas trademark.

In the past, Adidas has sued Target, Payless Shoes, fashion designer Ralph Lauren and numerous smaller companies over its three stripes logo.