The IP Runway: Issue No. 12
Intellectual property insights for the global business of fashion.
When Two Courts Look at a Birkenstock and See Different Things
Edition twelve starts with a question that sounds like a philosophy seminar and carries real money: can a sandal be a work of art?
Germany’s highest civil court said no. A Dutch court has now ruled that Lidl infringed copyright in Birkenstock’s footbed design and ordered the discounter to pull its lookalikes from Dutch shelves.
The case, fast
On September 23, the District Court of Gelderland, sitting in Arnhem, ruled for Birkenstock in a copyright case over sandals sold by Lidl that resembled five of its best-known models: the Arizona, Madrid, Gizeh, Boston, and Florida. According to Birkenstock, the court held that all of the Lidl sandals at issue infringe its copyright, in particular in the design of the footbed.
The consequences, as Birkenstock describes them, are concrete. Lidl must stop offering the sandals in the Netherlands, facing a penalty of 5,000 euros for every day it fails to comply. It must also disclose its sales and orders of the products, reimburse Birkenstock’s legal costs, and compensate the brand for the damage caused, with the amount to be set in separate proceedings. No response from Lidl appears in the coverage reviewed.
Birkenstock announced the result on September 24. The brand, whose shoemaking heritage dates back to 1774, said it will use all available legal means against imitations of its icons. Copycats, it said, must not be allowed to free-ride on its creativity and innovation.
A supermarket chain, five classic sandals, and a daily fine for every day the lookalikes stay on sale.
Why the courts don’t agree
The Dutch ruling lands in the middle of a genuine legal split.
Earlier in 2025, Germany’s highest civil court took the opposite view in a Birkenstock case, ruling that its sandals were functional products rather than works of art entitled to copyright protection, and that they did not show enough creativity to qualify. Then, on December 4, 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union weighed in with its Mio and konektra judgment: products of industrial design can qualify for copyright if they are the expression of the author’s own intellectual creation and reflect free and creative choices. Birkenstock argues that judgment supports protection for its sandals.
The Arnhem court’s decision fits that reading, and it is not the first Dutch judgment to part ways with Germany. In November 2025, another Dutch court ordered footwear retailer Scapino to stop selling Birkenstock lookalikes, a ruling now under appeal. The Lidl decision is also a first-instance ruling that Lidl can still appeal. As one trade outlet noted, jurisdiction and procedural stage matter when weighing the impact, and the record so far backs that up.
Same brand. Same continent. Two very different answers to the question of whether its design counts as creative work.
Why this matters beyond one sandal
Copyright asks a different question than trademark does. A trademark case turns on whether shoppers are confused about who made something. This ruling turns on whether the design itself reflects creative choices worth protecting. The dispute is over recognizable product design, not only a word mark or a logo. For fashion brands whose most valuable asset is a silhouette, that is a very different and potentially stronger tool.
Where you win matters as much as whether you win. This decision covers the Netherlands. It does not, by itself, create a Europe-wide ban on similar sandals, and the German result shows how the same brand’s designs can be treated differently one border over. Brands enforcing design rights across the EU are effectively running several cases at once.
Retailers of close substitutes should be paying attention. A discounter that stocks near copies of a recognizable design now has a live example of the risk, especially in the Netherlands, if the decision stands on appeal. That reaches well beyond Lidl, into the wider world of dupes that fashion has been arguing about for years.
Reading the runway
Nothing about this story is final. The ruling can be appealed, the damages are still to be calculated, and the German position has not moved.
What has moved is the question itself. For years, brands with iconic silhouettes assumed copyright protection for everyday design was a long shot. A Dutch judge has now said, at least for Birkenstock’s footbed, that it may not be.
More soon.
The IP Runway
Sources: Retail Gazette, WWD, RetailBoss, ESM Magazine, The European, and Birkenstock Group’s press release of September 24, 2026, reporting on the ruling of the District Court of Gelderland (Arnhem). Details of the ruling’s terms are as reported by Birkenstock.
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