Litigation

PUMA North America, Inc. v. Nike, Inc.

settled

IPR2019-01043

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Court: USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board
Filed: 2019-05-03
Terminated: 2019-12-03

Patents at issue (1)

Plaintiffs (1)

π PUMA North America, Inc.

Defendants (1)

Δ Nike, Inc.

Summary

PUMA North America, Inc. filed an inter partes review petition against Nike, Inc. challenging U.S. Patent No. 6,973,746. The Board instituted review on October 31, 2019, but the parties jointly moved to terminate based on a confidential settlement, and the proceeding was terminated on December 3, 2019 before a merits decision.

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Record id: 6973746-ipr2019-01043 · edit in Admin

Further reading

What is a patent troll?
Patent trolls are companies whose business is suing other companies. They make nothing, sell nothing, and add nothing — they collect old patents and use them to extract settlements from companies that actually do things.
How to read a patent claim
A patent has a 50-page specification, a fancy abstract, and a row of figures. Lawyers and courts look at none of that. They look at the claims.
What it costs to get a patent (AIPLA Economic Survey)
A US utility patent costs a median of $8,000-$12,000 in attorney fees to draft and file, depending on the technology — before USPTO fees, before drawings, and before the first office action. Here's the full bill, and why it's a rounding error next to enforcing the thing.
Lumen View v. FindTheBest (2013-2016): when a defendant fought back, the troll paid
Same patent. Same plaintiff playbook. Different outcome — because the defendant had the resources and the will to fight. Most don't. That's the asymmetry this site is built to fix.
What is a patent?
A patent is a deal between an inventor and the government — a 20-year monopoly in exchange for public disclosure. Most patents that get litigated would not survive serious scrutiny.

All resources →