New Balance Athletics has filed a design patent, trademark infringement, and unfair competition case, claiming that Steve Madden deliberately copied its 327 sneaker model with the launch of the “Chasen” shoe model. The complaint was filed in a Massachusetts District Court on June 7. New Balance introduced the 327 design in 2020. Steve Madden began selling the Chasen sneaker in late 2020 or early 2021 in what the plaintiff has described as “a deliberate knock-off intended to free-ride off of the popularity of New Balance’s 327.” According to New Balance, the Chasen “not only slavishly copied the design of the 327 model shoe, including the distinctive outer sole design, but it also used two diagonal downward stripes that copied the placement and mimicked the appearance of the two sides of New Balance’s ‘N’ mark.”

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