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9 December 2021PatentsAlex Baldwin

Nike wants to ban imports of Adidas Primeknit shoes

Nike has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) asking the agency to block Adidas from importing its “Primeknit” sneakers into the US.

The Oregon-based footwear giant claims that Adidas’s product range infringes six of its own knitted footwear patents related to the Nike “Flyknit” brand.

Nikes patents cover knitted fabric shoes that look to “enhance athletic performance” while reducing potential injury and material waste.

The complaint was submitted Wednesday, December 8, by Arnold & Porter partner Christopher Renk on behalf of Nike.

Nike first unveiled the Flyknit technology in February 2012, ahead of its debut at the London Olympics. The company claimed that the technology was the “most groundbreaking sneaker innovation in 40 years”.

Five months later, Adidas announced its similarly styled Primeknit range in July 2012.

“Unlike Nike, [Adidas] have forgone independent innovation. Instead, Adidas spent much of the past decade challenging several of Nike’s patents directed to its Flyknit technology,” Nike said in the complaint.

Nike is seeking an immediate investigation as to whether the sale of Primeknit shoes infringe its asserted patents, a permanent exclusion order and cease and desist orders.

Patent challenges

Following legal challenges to the Primeknit brand by Nike, Adidas has since challenged the validity of several of Nike’s Flyknit patents in both the US and Germany.

Adidas attempted to invalidate Nike Flyknit patents in an inter partes review before the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) but failed to convince the board, and later the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, to invalidate them.

Nike also tried to secure temporary injunctions against the sale of Primeknit and was briefly awarded a temporary injunction in Germany, but the courts ultimately denied Nike’s request for a permanent injunction and revoked the German portion of Nike’s ‘011 patent.

Currently, Adidas and Nike are currently embroiled in litigation across the PTAB, Federal Circuit and German high courts over three of the Flyknit patents.

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