Following years of constant growth, Adidas needs to reinvent itself, writes Wirtschaftswoche. Among other things, the editorial team sees a lack of innovative power, and proves it with a current patent survey of Grünecker. Accordingly, Nike is way ahead of Adidas in patent applications. The magazine cites the patent expert and attorney-at-law Dr. Ulrich Blumenröder, as stating that “The headway that Nike has created for itself with its patents on the European market is very hard for the German sports article industry to catch up with”.