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The sports brand is seeking a new trial over the designer's use of stripes due to some newly discovered emails.

It’s not important how Adidas discovered the “smoking gun” emails it unearthed regarding Thom Browne’s use of stripes. But the fact that they exist at all warrants a new trial.

That was the response of the attorneys for Adidas in its ongoing battle with the designer over the use of stripes in his athletic-inspired offering.

As reported, Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York has scheduled a hearing between the two parties on Dec. 21 to hear arguments devoted to intent in the discovery of several emails that surfaced following a jury decision earlier this year.

Adidas sued Browne for using four stripes on some of the American designer’s active-inspired merchandise, saying it created confusion with the sports brand. The designer had been using stripes on his collections for many years to reference collegiate varsity sweaters, but, after being approached by Adidas in 2007, agreed to change the design to four parallel bars. Adidas has been using its three-stripe bar in the U.S. since the 1950s and spends $300 million a year in advertising the stripes, and products sporting the mark account for $3.1 billion in annual sales.

In January, an eight-person jury in Manhattan’s Southern District came back with a verdict that found Browne was not liable for damages or profits that it made selling products with four stripes or its trademark grosgrain ribbon.

Adidas in October discovered four emails that it characterized as “bad faith” from employees who cautioned the designer about using specific stripe designs in its collections because they could potentially create confusion with Adidas. The emails surfaced in August during a separate trademark dispute between the two companies in the U.K. but were not disclosed during the initial trial.

Browne’s legal team on Friday said “Adidas’ hands are not clean” — alleging the sports brand breached a U.K. confidentiality agreement by sharing the emails with the company’s U.S. counsel much earlier than it had originally disclosed.

In response, Adidas’s attorney wrote: “For Thom Browne, there is no escaping the fact that it withheld smoking-gun evidence and got caught.” The company’s argument about when Adidas found the emails is irrelevant, it claimed. “Thom Browne asks the court to ignore its own egregious misconduct and focus instead on how that egregious misconduct was brought to light. The court should deny that unjust request and reject Thom Browne’s meritless ‘unclean hands’ argument.”

The filing went on to say that while Adidas’ attorney admitted the company had seen the emails earlier than it originally acknowledged, that breach was “inadvertent and harmless,” opening the door for a new trial.

Economy weaker than forecast as every sector declines

The UK economy unexpectedly contracted in October, driven by falls in every sector and fuelling concerns that high interest rates could push the country into a downturn.

Gross domestic product fell 0.3 per cent between September and October, data published by the Office for National Statistics showed on Wednesday.

Economists had expected no change in GDP after a 0.2 per cent expansion the previous month.

Services output fell by 0.2 per cent in October, driven by a fall in information and communication, and was the main contributor to the decline in GDP.

Production and construction also fell sharply, by 0.8 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively.

The data comes ahead of Thursday’s Bank of England decision on monetary policy. The central bank is expected to keep interest rates unchanged at a 15-year high of 5.25 per cent.

Conference host, the United Arab Emirates, brokered the compromise that calls for a clean energy shift to accelerate this decade

DUBAI—More than 190 governments at the United Nations climate conference approved an agreement Wednesday calling for the world to transition away from fossil fuels, an accord that bridged differences between big energy-producing nations and countries that want to completely phase out coal, oil and natural gas.

The deal, the result of all-night talks, calls for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.” It says the shift to clean energy for the global economy should accelerate this decade with the aim of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Scientists say that is crucial to fulfilling the Paris Accord, the landmark climate agreement that calls for governments to attempt to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures.

The deal marks the first time a U.N. climate agreement has called for governments to cut back on all fossil fuels. Scientists have long said it, but big fossil-fuel producers led by Saudi Arabia and fast-growing developing nations such as China and India have rebuffed pressure to call for burning less.

“We should be proud of our historic achievement,” said Sultan Al Jaber, the chief executive of the U.A.E.’s national oil company who is running COP28. “We have delivered a robust action plan to keep 1.5 within reach.”