Puma and Brooks Sports, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, have reached a settlement in a legal dispute involving running shoe patent and trademark, according to filings in Washington federal court. The cases involved are Puma SE v. Brooks Sports Inc, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Nos. 2:23-cv-00116 and 2:24-cv-00940.
The legal battle started when Puma filed a lawsuit against Brooks in 2022, claiming that a Brooks ad campaign using the term “Nitro” for its running shoes infringed upon Puma’s rights in the name, which it used in its own line of competing footwear. Puma also alleged that Brooks’ shoes infringed a design patent covering the foam-molding technology that Puma uses in its Nitro shoes. Brooks denied the accusations. Puma sued Brooks once again in Seattle last June, claiming that the Brooks Hyperion running shoes infringed other patents. Brooks also denied those allegations.
Both Puma and Brooks asked a federal judge in Seattle to dismiss the cases with prejudice, as reported by Reuters, thereby ensuring that they cannot be reopened.
