When Nike Flyknit and adidas Primeknit both debuted this summer, the immediate public response — besides unfettered excitement — was wondering which company could officially lay claim to the woven upper idea. Nike’s announcement today that they’ve won a temporary injunction for adidas to stop both Primeknit production and distribution in Germany, with intentions for a “permanent injunction” in the near future, doesn’t settle the matter but does reveal the legal point of view in the who-did-it-first scrum.
Nike’s full statement:
We are pleased the District Court in Nuremberg has granted our application for an interim injunction against adidas for patent infringement by the “adizero primeknit” shoe released in July, 2012. As a result, adidas has been ordered to stop the manufacture and distribution of the shoe in Germany.
Nike has a strong heritage of innovation and leadership in footwear design and development. Our patents are the foundation of that leadership and we protect them vigorously. In this case, the injunction helps protect the innovative NikeFlyknit footwear technology Nike introduced in February, 2012.
We look forward to presenting our case for a permanent injunction to the court.
via Nike
This should get real interesting. The new apple/samsung war.
I don’t understand how Nike has a case here. Granted I haven’t read the patent. But how can you patent a knitted upper? Adidas is clearly not using any sort of flywire. The only similarity is that they are both a knitted construction. It’s too broad. That would be like suing another company for using hotmelt/no sew construction.
those battles are so boring for customers, and makes the products even more expensive and kills innovation
yeah this is like the battle of mobile phones. if you can’t beat them, sue them.
Mike’s right, KNITTING is a TECHNIQUE, not a TECHNOLOGY.
Knitting IS a technique. That’s true. But knitting it to create a single upper shoes, that’s technology my friend. Don’t think that it’s similar with creating a beanie or sweater like our old grand mama did. It doesn’t. Indeed it’s doable. But for a mass produce machine to do that, it requires advance technology. Further, the yarn itself need to use special constructed yarn. Don’t be to shallow my friend. If it is easy to build, we would never say that flyknit is an invention.