Nike brand accuses Adidas brand sports shoe infringement

Nike and Adidas, the world's biggest sports shoes company, have set off a patent storm recently. The "boss" Nike accused the "second child" adidas infringement of patents, in its running, basketball and tennis shoes and other sports shoes used Nike's unique SHOX buffer technology, which is no shortage of Adidas many high-quality products. Adidas is currently very cautious about Nike's allegations. A spokeswoman for the company said on Friday: "We do not make any comment at this moment and the relevant lawsuit responds to the company being prepared."

Nike said adidas's “problem shoes” included its flagship product, the Adidas 1 series, which costs as much as US$250. It is also the company’s most expensive men’s sneakers, as well as the latest signature of Kevin Garnett’s $150 pair. Basketball shoes and so on. One thing these shoes have in common is that they use the Adidas A3 buffer system. But precisely at this point, Nike believes that competitors infringe on their proprietary SHOX buffer technology. In its statement, Nike said that SHOX buffer technology was used for 16 years of R&D income, and it was put into use in 2000, and obtained 19 related patents in 2002. "Although Nike has patent protection, Adidas still uses our technology to produce shoes."

Nike filed a petition with the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Texas last Thursday, asking Adidas to stop selling the problem shoes, not to continue to infringe on related patents, and to pay an unspecified amount of compensation. Nike said that the reason why Texas was chosen for litigation was that, in addition to some problems with shoes being sold locally, it was also because the courts in the area had extensive experience in hearing intellectual property cases.

Last month, Adidas had just completed the acquisition of Reebok’s 3.8 billion U.S. dollars, further narrowing the sales gap with Nike, which also means that the future competition between the two sides will become more intense. In the current $18 billion global sports shoes market, Adidas has a 28% share, slightly behind Nike's 31%. In the US market, Adidas’ share of 20% is still only half that of Nike.

However, the participation of Reebok will play a role in advancing Adidas's position in the US market. It is natural for Nike to sit by and watch Adidas hit the door. Analysts believe that this patent dispute is just a prelude to the competition between the two companies. .