Skechers usa, inc. wins another victory over nike in converse lawsuit

Skechers usa, inc. announced that it has won yet another major victory over nike, inc. in a case relating to nike’s wholly-owned subsidiary converse inc. the chief administrative law judge of the international trade commission (“itc”), the honorable charles e. bullock, found no violation of converse's chuck taylor midsole trademark by skechers' twinkle toes® and bobs® from skechers product lines or by any of the other skechers product lines accused in the case. judge bullock further ruled that the midsole trademark is not valid as to skechers because the trademark had not acquired secondary meaning at the time that skechers began using its designs back in 2001. this is the third time that skechers has won a victory in this case against converse since converse sued skechers in 2014, alleging that skechers' well-known twinkle toes and bobs from skechers product lines, in addition to skechers' daddy'$ money and hydee hy-top® product lines, infringed converse's chuck taylor midsole trademark. in november 2015, judge bullock ruled that skechers' twinkle toes and bobs product lines do not infringe converse's chuck taylor midsole trademark. in so ruling, the judge noted that both of the skechers product lines feature prominent branding and that the twinkle toes line contains design features that "create enough differences that the shoes bearing them cannot be said to be similar to [the chuck taylor]." the judge also stated that the survey evidence concluded that there was no likelihood that consumers would confuse skechers' twinkle toes and bobs from skechers designs with those of converse's chuck taylor designs. in june 2016, the full itc found that converse's trademark rights in the chuck taylor midsole design are invalid; that skechers' twinkle toes and bobs shoes would not infringe converse's claimed trademark rights, even if the trademark rights were valid; and that skechers can continue importing and selling its twinkle toes and bobs from skechers shoes in the united states. converse appealed the itc’s june 2016 decision to the united states court of appeals for the federal circuit, and in october 2018 the federal circuit remanded the case back to the itc for further proceedings, resulting in judge bullock's october 9, 2019 ruling, which was a complete victory for skechers.
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