One of the sportswear industries market leaders, Nike has accused a Chinese footwear brand of attempting to create an association with Nike by infringing numerous design patents and trademarks that the sports brand are famous for.
In a claim filed earlier this week Nike stated that “Instead of competing fairly by offering its own footwear designs, OneMix promotes and sells footwear with designs that are virtually identical to Nike’s patented designs.”
Nike has also alleged that the Chinese brand has also used the Nike trademarks, which include ‘Air Max’ and ‘Flyknit’, to promote its footwear.
As part of their legal action, Nike cited reviews of OneMix’s trainers by industry commentators and other consumers to support their claim.
In April 2016, trainer blog KicksOnFire.com reviewed OneMix footwear and a related promotional video in a post titled “Wait, What? Get Ready For The Onemix Flyknit Air Max”.
Within the video, KicksOnFire describes OneMix’s footwear as a copy of Nike’s Flyknit Air Max, saying: “It’s the stuff that dreams–and lawsuits–are made of, really. If a pair of Nike Air Max Flyknits with a slightly different logo weren’t staring right back at me.”
Nike has accused OneMix of infringing five design patents called “Shoe outsole”, three design patents called “Shoe midsole” and five called “shoe upper”. On top of that, they have been accused of infringing trademarks for ‘Air Max’, ‘Flywire’ and ‘Flyknit’.
The global brand is requesting a permanent injunction against OneMix as well as profits, damages and enhanced costs and damages.
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