On October 18, the American sports brand Skechers filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accusing the French luxury brand Hermès of infringing two of Skechers’ proprietary massage fit products. Sole technology.
Skechers sues Hermès for infringement
According to Sino-Singapore Jingwei, recently, the American sports brand Skechers sued the French luxury brand Hermès for infringement of its sole design patent.
Specifically, Skechers issued a statement on its official website saying that it is suing Hermès International and Hermès of Paris, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for infringement of its sole design patent rights.
Image source: Skechers statement
According to The Paper, Skechers pointed out in the lawsuit that the design elements used in the soles of the éclair and Envol shoes launched by Hermès in 2022 Infringes multiple patents of Skechers MassageFit soles.
"Skechers invests significant resources in research and development. It is disappointing that Hermès has chosen to copy and infringe Skechers' patented designs." A spokesperson for Skechers claimed that when competition When a rival blatantly violated the company's rights, Skechers had no choice but to seek legal recourse.
Image source: Litigation documents submitted by Skechers
Reuters reported that Skechers requested the court to compensate for monetary losses and asked the court to stop Hermès’ infringement. As of now, Hermès has not officially responded to Skechers’ accusations.
The report also stated that Skechers had also sued Fila, SteveMadden and other companies, accusing their related products of infringing on Skechers patents.
Currently, the GOWALKMASSAGEFIT series of sports shoes on Skechers’ official website are priced at approximately 849 yuan to 899 yuan, with men’s and women’s styles available. On the Hermès official website, the éclair sneakers are priced at 6,400 yuan; the Envol sneakers are priced at 7,100 yuan.
Public information shows that Skechers is an American brand born in 1992. As of the end of March this year, Skechers has more than 4,000 stores worldwide; Hermès is a French brand founded in 1837 and has more than 300 stores in 45 countries around the world.
Previously, Skechers released its quarterly report for the second quarter of 2022, stating that in the three months ended June 30, its sales increased by 1.24 to 1.87 billion US dollars year-on-year, and its net profit fell by 34.1 to 9040. million US dollars; Hermès’ revenue in the first half of 2022 increased by 2.3 billion to 5.475 billion euros year-on-year, and its net profit surged by nearly 4 billion to 1.641 billion euros.
The technical war between sports brands has escalated
According to Jiemian News, unlike its role in the court this time, Skechers has been a frequent visitor to the court docket in recent years.
In October 2014, Converse filed a large-scale lawsuit against dozens of brands, and Skechers was one of the defendants.
In September 2015, Adidas sued Skechers for illegal infringement of multiple of its trademarks, and the case was settled in 2019.
In November 2021, Skechers had just reached a settlement agreement with the American sports brand giant Nike (NIKE) regarding three patent lawsuits. Prior to this, the two sides had been arguing over the case for five years.
Of course, Skechers is not the only sports brand that is involved in lawsuits.
In the past year, Nike and Adidas, the world's two major sports brand giants, have been constantly at odds over technology patent infringement. In June this year, Adidas filed a federal lawsuit against Nike, accusing Nike of infringing on multiple of its patents in shoe technology and mobile applications.
In December last year, Nike also asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to block the import of many Adidas sports shoes on the grounds that Adidas was suspected of plagiarizing Nike's patented knitted fabric Flyknit design technology.
In fact, in recent years, the competition between sports brands has increasingly evolved into a battle on product technology.
Bain Consulting data shows that 60% of consumers in the mid-to-high-end sports market will consider product functions, and 44% will consider smart technology.
The NPD Group, an American market research organization, also pointed out in a research report that “consumers are paying more and more attention to the professionalism and functionality of sports products, and product technology is taking on greater weight.”
For the whole of 2021, Adidas’ annual revenue reached 21.234 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 15%. Nike's revenue for fiscal year 2022 as of May 31, 2022 reached US$46.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6. In terms of expenditures, both giants have about 10% of their R&D expenditures, which shows that brands attach great importance to product technology.
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