On December 10, 2021, local time in the United States, according to media reports, Nike is asking the US International Trade Commission to block the import of a number of Adidas sneakers, including a joint series with Stella McCartney and Pharrel Williams. Nike believes the German sports manufacturer has infringed on its Flyknit flying wire design technology. In its complaint filed on December 8, Nike said Adidas had 49 shoes that used PrimeKnit technology, which infringed six of Nike's patents. In response, according to Reuters, an Adidas spokesperson was quoted as saying that the company is analyzing the complaint and will defend Adidas against these allegations, and stressed that Primeknit technology originates from years of research.
Launched in 2012, Flyknit Flying Wire technology is an innovative upper manufacturing process that "delivers performance, design, and aesthetics while reducing material and waste," according to Nike. ”
Five months after Nike released Flyknit, Adidas launched Primeknit.
Both brands use knitting techniques extensively in their product lines, such as Nike's running shoes, basketball shoes, football shoes, etc., including basketball star LeBron James and football star C Ronaldo's signature shoes.
The Adidas shoes that were considered infringing covered casual shoes, football shoes, running shoes, and hiking shoes, involving ultraboost, Terrex, X Speedflow and other product lines.
This is not the first confrontation between Adidas and Nike — last year, Adidas also tried to sue Nike for invalidating two patents in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, arguing that Nike had copied Primeknit technology but failed.
Nike said the Flyknit technology is the result of its $100 million research and development.
In the more than $58 billion sneaker market, the intellectual property war between big names has escalated in recent years.
In 2018, Nike also sued german sports brand PUMA for infringing its Flyknit patent, and the two sides finally reached a settlement in January 2020.
In November, Nike and U.S. brand Skechers reached a settlement agreement over three patent lawsuits, and a five-year court dispute finally came to an end.
Prior to this, Nike had filed lawsuits against Skechers for many years in a row.
In September this year, Nike's latest financial report showed that revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2022 increased by 16% year-on-year to $12.2 billion.
In November, Adidas reported fiscal third quarter 2021 with revenue of $6.6 billion, up only 3.4% year-on-year, while operating profit fell 8.5% year-on-year.
Nike and Adidas, which fought in court, "shared suffering" on another level, and the supply chain was jointly affected by the shutdown of the Vietnamese factory, and several performance data were lower than analysts expected.
In this regard, many netizens are also holding the mentality of eating melon and watching the hilarity.
Many people say, look at your bite, we choose Li Ning Anta.
And, of course, there's Hongxing Erke.
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