Birkenstock, which is headquartered in Linz am Rhein in western Germany and says its tradition of shoemaking goes back to 1774, had filed a lawsuit against three competitors who sold sandals that were very similar to its own.

On Thursday, the federal court of justice in Karlsruhe, Germany, ruled that Birkenstocks were not “copyrighted works of applied art,” making it harder for the 251-year-old German shoemaker to combat the widespread sale of duplicates of its sandals across the internet.

Can Birkenstock sandals be considered art? That's what Germany's Federal Court of Justice had to decide on Thursday, and it ruled they're just comfy footwear.