Good inventions often appear at the same time and in different parts of the world. Sporting goods manufacturers and rivals Adidas and Nike do not believe in these coincidences and have been fighting for a decade over a knitting technology called Adidas
“Primeknit” and Nike called “Flyknit”, and which appeared almost at the same time, namely before the Olympic Games in London in 2012.
Now the US federal agency for international trade law (ITC) is examining whether Adidas violates the patent rights of its rival Nike with its “Primeknit” technology and whether it can continue to sell its shoes in the USA. Adidas denies any infringement of patent law and insists on having developed the technology independently and through many years of research.
Nike wants to have Primeknit articles banned in the USA
If the US commission agrees with Nike, this would mean a huge financial loss for Adidas, as the US market is an important one for the Herzogenaurach-based company and shoe sales make up a significant proportion of sales. Not to mention damaging its reputation should the agency accuse Adidas of infringing patent law.
The invention of knitting technology, which makes shoes lighter and more flexible, but is also suitable for sportswear, goes back to a process that the company had already protected with an EU patent in 2002. Nike even obtained a provisional sales ban against Adidas’ “Primeknit”, but this was lifted by the Nuremberg-Fürth regional court in November 2012 due to a lack of patent infringement. Adidas then applied to the Federal Patent Court in Munich for the cancellation of the Nike patent, which declared it invalid on October 30, 2014.