Adidas has filed for review of Nike's patent for Flyknit technology, which is a battle Adidas has been engaged in since 2012 when Nike introduced the beloved knitted technology.
On Thursday, Adidas filed an official appeal with the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals, in an effort to overturn an October 19th decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board upholding Nike's Flyknit patent.
According to Portland Business Journal, "the "749 Patent," which Nike obtained back in 2004, gives Nike ownership of the invention of a shoe upper that is knitted by a machine from a single piece of yarn, creating a tube-like structure that is then cut and attached to the sole of the shoe, as well as the methods of manufacturing that type of upper. The technology reduces the labor, material and time needed to produce each shoe."
Adidas contends that this type of manufacturing process is unpatentable, citing Title 35, Section 103 of U.S. patent law, which states that a patent for an invention may not be claimed if the invention "would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains."
Since those manufacturing methods were already in place for creating products such as stockings and hosiery, the Adidas appeal maintains that Nike used a "conventional" textile process that can not be claimed as a new invention.
