The US Supreme Court has denied hearing NIKE‘s appeal in a long pending shoe design infringement dispute with German rival adidas.
Nike’s appeal challenged the decision of a US Patent Office tribunal to cancel part of a shoe patent.
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The US-based sportswear brand’s bid was turned away by the Supreme Court on 26 June, upholding the Patent Trial and Appeal Board action.
According to a Reuters report, Nike wanted to overturn the lower court’s decision to ‘invalidate’ the proposed substitute patent elements because of some ‘arguments’ that were not raised by Adidas at the time.
The two rival brands have been engaged in various patent lawsuits regarding the design of knit uppers in their sneakers.
In 2012, Adidas also filed a petition in the US patent office tribunal to cancel one of Nike’s patents for ‘upper’ components, which is made from a knitted textile, for athletic sneakers.
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By GlobalDataThe lower court agreed to listen to the petition, after which the US-based sportswear brand decided to cancel parts of its patent and substitute a less comprehensive patent claim.
The lower court granted a cancellation request. However, the tribunal rejected its request to amend the patent.
The report claimed that the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected Nike’s third appeal last year.
In February 2022, Nike filed a lawsuit against an online reselling platform regarding unauthorised non-fungible tokens.
