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The battle of the woven knits between the Swoosh and 3 Stripes is stronger than ever in 2021 with Nike requesting the U.S. International Trade Commission to block certain adidas imports stating that it infringes in their patents on Flyknit technology according to Reuters.
In a complaint on Wednesday, Nike states that 49 of adidas’ sneakers that use adidas Primeknit infringe on 6 Nike patents.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld two Nike patents last year which was challenged by adidas, which left adidas vulnerable to a potential infringement lawsuit over Primeknit.
Nike’s Flyknit debuted back in February of 2012, with adidas introducing Primeknit five months after. An adidas spokesperson stated in an email to Reuters that the company would defend itself against the allegations and Primknit was created through years of dedicated research.
Primeknit is used on popular adidas sneakers such as the adidas Ultraboost, Futurecraft 4D, certain models of the NMD, and more. Time will tell if the complaint will be successful.
