Nike, Skechers Do Battle Over Shoe Designs

Nike Inc. and Skechers USA Inc. have been locked in a yearslong patent battle over sports shoe designs, highlighting a tricky question in patent law: How do you show that a contested design has already been done before?  Nike sued Skechers in 2016, claiming that the latter’s Burst and Flex shoes copied its patented designs in the Nike Free 3.0, Nike Free 4.0 and Nike Flyknit Air Max shoe models released a few years earlier. The patents at issue cover diagonal and V-shaped threaded designs on shoe uppers and three-dimensional block-shaped designs on the soles. But after nearly four years and more than a dozen frustrated challenges to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Skechers is still questioning if Nike’s patents for the designs are valid, according to filings in California federal court.  In its own filing on Monday, Nike slammed the Skechers shoes as reflecting an approach of “copying its competitors’ shoes and making ‘Skecherized’ versions of them.” Skechers argued the Nike designs in question have long been in the public domain, and, therefore, fair game for competitors.  “Nike cannot escape the fact that its claimed designs are mere reiterations of design elements that Nike placed in the public domain years before Nike

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