New Balance sues Decathlon over the letter N

New Balance, the American shoe maker, has taken the French chain Decathlon to a federal court in Massachusetts. The company says the logo of Decathlon's running brand Kiprun infringes its rights to the distinctive letter N, the Chinese outlet Jiemian reports. Kiprun launched in April 2025, and one of its models sold for 619.9 yuan. Decathlon is a big player: in 2025 its gross merchandise value (GMV) reached 20.7 billion euros and net revenue 16.8 billion euros. Competitors have faced accusations of copying a piece of visual identity before. In the sports business, a letter or a stripe can cost as much as a whole campaign.

When design kills a brand

A second case shows the risk running the other way. The Chinese cosmetics brand Uhue said in September 2026 that it was shutting down. The trouble started earlier that year, when internet users criticised its packaging as skirting the line of good taste (擦边). The brand's exit does not change the size of the market it worked in. According to FBeauty, cosmetics sold online in China between January and July 2026 were worth 633.35 billion yuan, almost 9 percent more than a year earlier. Euromonitor puts L'Oréal, the colour cosmetics leader, at around 23 percent of the Chinese makeup market in 2025.

Design as legal risk

Both disputes come down to the same thing. A visual element, whether a letter, a bottle shape or a packaging layout, is now an asset that has to be protected and checked before launch. In a logo dispute, what counts is how close the design sits to an earlier mark registered in a given territory, not what the designer intended. In a packaging dispute, what counts is how the audience reacts, and no brief can predict that. That is why design studios increasingly begin with a trademark search rather than a moodboard.