Kleinberg & Lerner, LLP represents Defendants Skechers U.S.A., Inc., Brown Shoe Company, Inc. d/b/a FamousFootwear.com and Brown Group Retail, Inc. d/b/a Famous Footwear (Defendants) in Asics Corp. et al. v. Skechers U.S.A., Inc. et al.. The Plaintiffs are Asics Corporation and Asics America Corporation.
Asics sued the Defendants for trademark infringement, unfair competition, trademark dilution and false advertising, claiming that the stripe design on four Skechers shoe styles infringes Asics’ stripe trademark. Asics sought a preliminary injunction against Defendants to prevent them from making and selling the four shoe styles. After hearing oral argument, the court denied Asics’ motion. In a 21-page opinion dated April 25, 2007, the court found that Asics had not shown that it is likely to succeed in its trademark infringement case against Skechers. The District Court’s opinion states: “the designs are quite different and in the marketplace the shoes appear highly dissimilar.” The court also found that the Asics trademark and Skechers stripes were not similar enough to infer that Skechers copied its designs from Asics.