Skye sued Hermes for infringement.
Recently, Skye, an American sports brand, sued Hermes, a French luxury brand, for infringing its only design patent, Zhongxin Jingwei reported.
Specifically, Skechers issued a statement in official website, claiming that HermèsInternational and HermèsofParis, Inc. infringed their exclusive design patents in the U.S. District Court.
Image source: Sketch Editor declaration
According to the paper, Skechers pointed out in the lawsuit that the design elements used in the soles of éclair and Envol introduced by Hermes in 2022 infringed on many patents of Skechers' massage fit soles.
"Skye has invested a lot of resources in research and development. Disappointingly, Hermes chose to copy and infringe Skechers' patented design. "A spokesperson for Skechers claimed that when competitors blatantly violated the company's rights, Skechers had no choice but to seek legal solutions.
Image source: litigation documents submitted by the draftsman
According to reports from Reuters, Skechers asked the court to compensate for the money loss, and asked the court to decide to stop Hermes' infringement. Up to now, Hermes has not made an official response to Skye's allegations.
The report also said that SKECH also sued Fila, SteveMadden and other companies, accusing their related products of infringing SKECH's patents.
At present, the price of GOWALKMASSAGEFIT series sports shoes sold by SKECH in official website is about 849 -899 yuan, which is divided into men's and women's models. In Hermes official website, éclair sneakers cost 6,400 yuan; Envol sneakers are priced at 7 100 yuan.
According to public information, SKECH is an American brand, which was born in 1992. As of the end of March this year, SKECH has accumulated more than 4,000 stores worldwide; Hermes is a French brand, founded in 1837, with more than 300 stores in 45 countries around the world.
Previously, Skye released the quarterly report for the second quarter of 2022, saying that sales increased by 12.4% year-on-year to 187 billion US dollars, and net profit decreased by 34 1% year-on-year to 90.4 million US dollars. In the first half of 2022, Hermes' revenue increased by 23% year-on-year to 5.475 billion euros, and its net profit increased by nearly 40% to 164 1 billion euros.
The technical war of sports brands has been upgraded again.
According to Interface News, unlike his role in court this time, Skechers has been a frequent visitor in the dock in recent years.
20 14, 10 In June, Converse launched a large-scale lawsuit against dozens of brands, and Skech was one of the defendants.
On September 20 15, adidas sued Skye for illegally infringing several of its trademarks, and the case was settled on September 20/kloc-0.
202 1 1 1, SKECH has just reached a settlement agreement with American sports brand giant Nike on three patent lawsuits. Prior to this, the two sides had been arguing about this case for five years.
Of course, SKECH is not the only sports brand troubled by litigation.
In the past year, Nike and Adidas, the two major sports brand giants in the world, have been in constant confrontation on the issue of technology patent infringement. In June this year, Adidas filed a federal public prosecution against Nike, accusing Nike of infringing its patents on footwear technology and mobile applications.
In June 5438+February last year, Nike also asked the US International Trade Commission to stop importing a variety of Adidas sports shoes on the grounds that Adidas was suspected of copying Nike's patented design technology of knitted fabric Flyknit.
In fact, in recent years, the competition between sports brands has increasingly evolved into the confrontation of product technology.
According to Bain Consulting data, 60% of consumers in the mid-to high-end sports market will consider product features and 44% will consider smart technology.
NPD Group, an American market research organization, also pointed out in a research report that "consumers pay more and more attention to the professionalism and functionality of sports products, and product technology occupies greater weight."
In 20021year, Adidas' annual revenue reached 2123.4 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 15%. Nike's revenue in fiscal year 2022 ended May 3 1 reached US$ 46.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6%. From the perspective of expenditure, the R&D expenditure ratio of the two giants is about 10%, which shows that the brands attach importance to product technology.
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