Nike and Adidas, Knit textile patent dispute

   Nike and Adidas, sports brand leader

Nike and Adidas are leading sports brand markets. Forbes, the economic magazine in the United States, ranked Nike on 14th and Adidas on 61st in the world brand rankings in 2019. Looking at the market share of global sports brands in 2017, Nike is 40% and Adidas is 23%. Although it is a big difference in the North American market (48% for Nike, 8% for Adidas), it is not big gap for Europe (37% for Nike, 28% for Adidas) and Asia (27% for Nike, 24% for Adidas).

🔺 pixabay.com

   Lighter shoes! Knitted textile shoes

All sporting goods manufacturers have been trying to make lighter sneakers. Nike has also been researching for a long time to make shoes that are lightweight and comfortable to wear. In the 1980s, the 'Sock Racer' running shoe, which was named because it was similar to a sock, was released, but it failed due to its lack of durability. Since then, similar attempts have been made, but the vulnerabilities have not been solved. Since then, Nike has formed a team developing flyknit to solve the problem of durability, and in 2012, launched the Flyknit running shoe, which is lighter and more comfortable to wear.

The 'FlyKnit' technology, in which lightweight fibers are woven like knit-sweaters without stitching the upper part of the shoe, that enables a customized method through computer control, reduce manufacturing time and minimiz the loss of fabric generated during manufacturing. . Adidas also launched a 'Prime knit' running shoe made of lightweight fibers in 2012. Adidas, a latecomer at the time, competed with quality to target the market. They insisted that Prime knit’s quality is better because it is produced by hand only in Germany, while Flyknit is commissioned in a third country, not in the United States. In addition, they open the process of making shoes to increase confidence in quality.

🔺 flickr.com

   Nike vs. Adidas, knit textile technology patent dispute

The technology for making flyknit was filed in 2004, which was titled 'Article of footwear having a textile upper'. After filing an divisional application under the same name in 2011, it was registered in September 2012. Five months later, Adidas launched a Primeknit product made with technology similar to Flyknit. Afterwards, Adidas demanded IPR (Inter Partes Review) against the Nike for the issue of creativity of the flyknit patent to US PTAB (Patent Trial and Appeal Board) in 2016.

🔺 wipsglobal.com
Nike's patent about flyknit

   What is the result of the IPR (Inter Partes Review)?

In the IPR, the US PTAB judged that Nike's patent had no problem with its creativity. Creativity refers to inventive step of the technology showing the inventor’s creative abilities., and Adidas claimed that anyone in the industry of the corresponding technology could come up with the same idea, but was not accepted. Adidas appealed without approving the decision. On the 6/25, the US Court of Appeals rejected the appeal by ruling that the decision of the PTAB was fine. Eventually, Adidas' counterclaim against Nike in 2016 ended with Nike's victory.

🔺 wipsglobal.com > Trial search
IPR of Adidas v. Nike

   A growing market, Nike’s response?

In 2018, Nike filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Puma. There were five patent related to flyknit technology out of the eight issued patents. The lawsuit was ended by Nike’s withdrawal but the patent dispute related to the corresponding technology is expected to increase in the future. This is because with the advent of fly knit technology, many sports and outdoor brands have begun to launch knitted sports shoes.

🔺 wipsglobal.com > Litigation search
Nike v. Puma

   According to a study by Textile Today, an American textile magazine, the global knit footwear market, which was worth $2 billion in 2017, is expected to grow to $3.2 billion in 2025. As the growing market, I wonder how Nike will respond to protect its rights.

LG Electronics' patent management

With the emergence of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the importance of patents is emerging as new technologies as the core item. LG Electronics is also building a strong patent portfolio through continuous research and development to realize patent management. According to the business report, as of the end of 2019, the total number of domestic & foreign patents was 86,527, which is an increase of 4,457 from 82,070 a year ago. They’re actively responding to infringement litigation. In the meantime, it is a contrary movement to the quiet proceedings that had not disclosed before.

   Prevention of patent infringement by litigation

On the 19th, LG Electronics won the patent infringement lawsuit related to ice-making of refrigerator doors against electronics companies Beko and Grundig. By this lawsuit, the products from the German companies won’t be sold in Germany. In addition to this, LG Electronics is actively in the process of patent litigation in various technology fields, such as Beko's steam technology, telecommunication technology with TCL of China and BLU of US and TV technology with Hisense of China. It’s seen as a warning message to prevent patent infringement of other competitors through aggressive litigation.

🔺 wipsglobal.com
LG Electronics' KR patent, 10-1728735,
"A refrigerator comprising an ice making device"

   Increased loyalty revenue through licensing agreement

As a model for generating revenue through patents, LG Electronics chose a licensing strategy. This is possible because LG Electronics is the world-class in major technology fields such as telecommunication, TV etc. They’ve signed an LTE standard patent license agreement with BLU, which infringed on telecommunication technology, and in June 2019, also signed a core patent licensing with GE Appliances related to the refrigerator, which is a premium product, ice water purifier. LG Electronics' patent royalties are increasing rapidly. It increased by 72% compared to the previous year to USD394 bil. in 2019 from USD228 bil. in 2018.

🔺 pixabay.com

   LG Electronics Patent Center, the center of patent management

LG Electronics Patent Center leads the both the patent litigation and licensing strategy to achieve patent management. As the head of the center is a vice president-level executive, patent center is also recognized as a core department within the company. Thanks to this, in the first quarter of this year, approx.. USD900bil., which is 7.4% of revenue, was used for research and development.

   According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), LG Electronics also ranked 8th in the world in corporate patent rankings in 2018. There’s keen interest on how much more LG Electronics' patent management will achieve.

[WIPS Global] Hidden but very useful tips

In this issue #3, we're going to take a look a few features that are so small and hidden but very useful to review the key points of technologies.

Drawing is very useful information in reviewing the contents of the patent document after search. This is because the drawings contain a lot of key contents of the patent.

Did you know the 'Slide View' in Easy Viewer?

Easy Viewer provides the 'Slide View' that allows user to review drawings in more detail. The previous drawings could not be seen in bigger format. The current 'Slide View' makes it easier and more convenient to review the patent focusing on drawings.

🔺 wipsglobal.com/ Easy Viewer>Slide View

You can select the drawing icon, which you can choose the representative drawing or individual drawing on the upper right in the page.

🔺 wipsglobal.com/ Easy Viewer>Slide View

Another convenient feature of the Slide View is, user can see the description of the drawing, claims, and description of the invention with the drawing at once.

🔺 wipsglobal.com/ Easy Viewer>Slide View

Auto Play, which plays the individual drawings in turn without any additional clicks. You can set up to 1-30 seconds for automatic sliding. You can still zoom in or out on the screen and rotate it 90 degrees to the left or right. Shortcuts are also there for quick and convenient view.

🔺 wipsglobal.com/ Easy Viewer>Slide View

‘View Drawings’ at the bottom shows the all of the individual drawings.

Another hidden feature of WIPS Global, IDS Check.

Many users just pass it and don’t look into what it is but it’s indispensable final step in the process of invalidity search.

IDS means Information Disclosure Statement, which is an “obligation to disclose all  the information the applicant knows” system that only exists in the United States. This system is that the applicant has to submit all the technical references related to the patent when files a patent in the U.S.  From the applicant's point of view, they may wonder about  compulsory submission of prior technical data that is unfavorable to me, but if think backwards, it also means that they have the technology to get registered even such prior technical data. Therefore, it is necessary to submit not only all the prior art data cited by the examiner during the examination, but also all the references mentioned in the overseas application.

If user does not submit, they may have troubles to exercise the patent rights later. 

Checking IDS process is very important in order to ensure that all the researched and cited data are submitted to prevent any damage to keep the patent rights.

Now let's see how the 'IDS Check' works.

It couldn’t be more simple and easier.

🔺 wipsglobal.com/ Invalidation Advisor

After searching in the Invalidation Advisor, just simply click the 'IDS Check' button on the left side of the result list.

🔺 wipsglobal.com/ Invalidation Advisor>IDS Check

A List of documents shows up by clicking the button.

🔺 wipsglobal.com/ Invalidation Advisor>IDS Check

The right green box (①) is the patent families of the searched patent.

The left blue one (②) is references that corresponds to the prior technical references such as citation, etc. of these patent families. This means that the references on the left must be provided as the information that need to be stated in the target patent and family documents. If NOT, the target patent could be invalidated by a violation of the obligation to disclose the information.

When you file a patent in the U.S., you must submit all the data you know so that you don’t get any damage to use your patent right.

When you search to invalidate a patent, it is necessary to check whether the IDS is violated or not. 

[International IP Briefing] July 2020

US

On June 2, 2020, the Apple’s patent of a technology to synthesize photos as if they were taken with others while maintaining a social distance was registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

The patent titled 'Generating Synthetic Group Selfies' 1), which synthesizes each self-photographed photo and processes them into one image as if there were together. Apple filed the technology in July 2018.

Specifically, in order to create such a group selfie image, first one user sends an invitation to a friend on a device such as a smartphone, and the invited friends take a selfie, each selfie is sent to the device of the user who sent the invitation and all the received selfies are synthesized.

In addition to the photos, the selfie data for synthesis are applied to the videos and live photos as well.

🔺 wipsglobal.com
The said Apple's patent drawing of a process of synthesizing each selfies into one image

< Source >

https://www.kiip.re.kr/board/trend/view.do?bd_gb=trend&bd_cd=1&bd_item=0&po_item_gb=US&po_no=19730

US

Digimedia Tech LLC recently filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Nikon. According to DIY photography on July 1^st (local time), Digimedia claimed that Nikon has infringed three of its patents on the Coolpix P900 and A1000 cameras.

Digimedia’s first patent, which was indicated in the document that sued Nikon, is titled ‘Microminiature zoom system for digital camera’ (US 6914635). The patent relates to the miniaturization, autofocus and other features of digital cameras. It also includes image correcting and stabilizing techniques.

Second patent Digimedia claimed that Nikon has infringed its patent on a system that tracks the head of a camera-generated human image, which is titled ‘System, method and article of manufacture for tracking a head of a camera-generated image of a person’ (US 6545706). It relates to a technology that detects the face and identifies the head in an image.

The third patent is similar to the second patent, it’s also related to the technical problem of how to identify the head in the image (US 7715476), which is the same title with the ‘706 patent.

🔺 wipsglobal.com
Digimedia Tech's three patents

Digimedia claimed that Nikon used the three patents on Coolpix P900 and A1000 without permission and filed for damages. It’s not clear how much money Nikon will have to pay if Nikon loses.

🔺 wipsglobal.com
Litigation search at wipsglobal.com
DigiMedia Tech v. Nikon

< Source >

Global-Biz 24, g-enews.com 

IPR DAILY, iprdaily.com