Nike has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Chinese shoe brand Fujian Bestwinn.
According to the new suit, Nike alleges that the Chinese company has “made, used, sold, offered to sell, and/or imported into the United States” shoes with the “same or substantially similar overall visual impression” to Nike’s 20 patent-protected designs, The Fashion Law reported.
Fujian, which is hosted by Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba, a platform notorious for Chinese-made counterfeit goods, reportedly exports 91 to 100% of it’s inventory to major U.S. retailers like Wal-Mart and pulls in between $50 to $100 million in revenue annually.
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The complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada last month, states that Fujian sold virtual copies of Nike designs at the WSA@Magic trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, for three years in a row.
Compared side by side, the resemblance of each Fujian Bestwinn model to the original Nike counterpart is uncanny. The brand’s logo is also an upside-down version of the Nike Swoosh, one of the most recognizable icons in the world.
Nike is seeking monetary compensation and asked the court to immediately and permanently prevent Fujian Bestwinn from manufacturing and selling the sneakers in question.
Recently, the global shoe manufacturing giant also went after Sketchers over shoe designs that were allegedly copied from its Flyknit and Free sneakers line.
