Nike calls out Skechers over strategic ‘copying’
Nike has doubled down in its efforts to hold shoemaker Skechers accountable for what it says is a strategy of copying competitors’ designs, by filing a third pending lawsuit between the two companies.
In the latest suit, filed at the US District Court for the Central District of California on September 30, Nike claimed that “instead of innovating its own designs and technologies, Skechers often copies the successful products of others”.
At issue in the suit are a total of 12 design patents for Nike’s Air Max 270 and VaporMax shoes. According to Nike, the California-based shoemaker’s self-described strategy of “Skecherizing” popular shoes amounts to mere copying.
Nike pins responsibility for driving this strategy firmly with Skechers CEO Robert Greenberg. The athletic apparel brand cited a previous suit brought by Adidas in which “a Skechers corporate witness testified that Mr Greenberg gave orders to knock-off competitor products”.
Converse, a Nike subsidiary, has two outstanding lawsuits against Skechers for allegedly copying its designs.
In the latest suit, Nike named Skechers products including the Skech-Air Atlas with model numbers 52970 and 52973 as infringing its design patents for the VaporMax.
Nike also pinpointed the Skech-Air Stratus with model numbers 13275, 13276, and 13278 as infringing its patents for the Air Max 270.
According to Nike, an “ordinary observer” would consider Skechers’ shoes to be “substantially the same” as the Nike shoes covered by the design patents-in-suit.
Nike is seeking an injunction preventing any infringement of its patents, as well as “supplemental damages or profits for any continuing post-verdict infringement up until entry of the final judgment”.
Nike has also requested an award of treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement of its IP.
A spokesperson for Skechers told WIPR that the company “does not comment on pending litigation”.
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