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DESIGN

Christmas shopping: Swedish design online

Some of it is sleek, and some of it is just plain weird. Some of it’s pretty, and some of it is just plain ugly…by design. Here’s The Local’s guide to the best of Swedish design online.

Christmas shopping: Swedish design online

Fuldesign

www.fulshop.se

The name says it all. Fuldesign, which means “Ugly design”, is a Stockholm-based studio who claim to be inspired by “everything from German gay porn, Sci Fi and anxiety to old ladies and good music.” Check out their web shop for everything from raunchy embroidery to a pillow pistol. Also visit www.fuldesign.se for free patterns, stencils, naughty robot music and instructions on how to make your very own monster.

Juniform (In Swedish only)

www.juniform.se

Selected products from well-established and new Swedish designers. Here you’ll find everything from gender-neutral children’s clothes, vintage wooden clogs from the 1970s, the latest Odd Molly garments to jewelry, wool socks and pillow cases. Brands include Odd Molly, Swedish hasbeens, Moonkids, Shampoodle, Färg och form, Trots, Lummen, GUPP, KADE, Acne jr, Viveka Zera and Arbeståhl Design.

Moderna Museet

Textalk

Like its analogue equivalent, Moderna Museet’s online gift shop is a great place to pick up some unique presents sure to please art lovers and designofiles.

Designtorget

www.designtorget.se

One-stop shopping for all of the Swedish design you could ask for.

Signerat (In Swedish only)

www.signerat.se

An excellent online store that provides an outlet for independent Swedish designers, similar to Brooklyn-based Etsy (www.etsy.com) in the US, which bills itself as an “online marketplace for buying & selling all things handmade”. (If you’re in the US, you’ll even find some Dalahästar lurking around on Etsy). Don’t forget to check out the gifts for the furry ones. Who doesn’t need a cashmere polo for their Chihuahua?

Kuji-goji design

Kuji-Goji

Japanese graphic design Masaaki Oyamada (www.masaakioyamada.com) has recently made Stockholm his home. Check out his t-shirts for the house-hunting expat (or Swede for that matter). It worked for him!

Kiss&Bajs

www.kissochbajs.com

That’s right, it’s stuffed poo. For potty-training the kids, or freaking out their parents. It gives a whole new meaning to Mr. Hanky the singing, dancing Christmas Poo.

Dizel&Sate

www.dizelsate.com

Street-smart stocking stuffers from graphic design duo Dizel&Sate. Check out their new 2009 t-shirt collection, a spinoff from their Life & Death in Architecture print collection, released earlier this year. Expect geometry, pills and Mickey Mouse allusions.

Your weekend fashion shop (In Swedish only)

www.ywfs.se

Swedish fashion at your fingertips. Brands include Bea Szenfeld, Burfitt, LiseLotte Westerlund, Pimpinette, Rodebjer, Carin Wester, Dagmar, Hope, Ida Sjöstedt and Wyred.

T-post

www.t-post.se

Subscribe to a bi-monthly…t-shirt. Every six weeks, T-post commissions a new t-shirt featuring a bespoke design on the outside, and the latest news on the inside. Read all about it.

COURT

Adidas loses EU court battle over ‘three stripe’ design

German sportswear giant Adidas on Wednesday lost a legal battle to trademark its "three stripe" motif in the EU, as a court ruled the design was not distinctive enough to deserve protection.

Adidas loses EU court battle over 'three stripe' design
Archive photo shows an Adidas shoe. Photo: DPA

The three parallel stripes seen adorning everything from running shoes to sports bags and the sleeves of t-shirts are “an ordinary figurative mark”, the General Court of the European Union ruled.

The court, the EU's second highest tribunal, upheld a 2016 ruling by the bloc's intellectual property regulator cancelling the registration of the three-stripe design as a trademark following a challenge by a Belgian shoe 
company.

“The General Court of the EU confirms the invalidity of the Adidas EU trade mark which consists of three parallel stripes applied in any direction,” the court said in a statement.

Adidas had not proved the motif had acquired a “distinctive character” throughout the 28 countries of the bloc that would qualify for legal protection, the court said.

SEE ALSO: Shoe-Bahn: Berliners queue for sneaker with sewn-in annual transit ticket

“The mark is not a pattern mark composed of a series of regularly repetitive elements, but an ordinary figurative mark,” the court said.

The ruling is the latest round in a long legal tussle between Adidas and Belgian rival Shoe Branding Europe, which as far back as 2009 won trademark status for a two-stripe design, triggering court action from the German firm.

Adidas, which is based in the small Bavarian city of Herzogenaurach near Nuremberg, can appeal against Wednesday's decision to the European Court of Justice, the bloc's highest court. 

 

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