A Florida-based company is suing Nike for allegedly using its invention of a sports “pocket bra” in Nike’s athletic bras without permission. The Pocket Bra is a sports bra that features built-in pockets where women can keep their belongings during physical activity. SherryWear LLC, headquartered in Vero Beach, claims in the lawsuit that its founder, Sherry Goff, pitched her patented Pocket Bra design to Nike starting in 2015. SherryWear filed its first patent application in 2011, and by early 2015, the company had filed four patent applications, two of which were issued. In June 2015, Goff submitted SherryWear’s pending patents and photographs of a SherryWear pocket bra to the “Nike Idea Submission” platform. Nike did not respond to that idea submission, according to the plaintiff. In January 2017, Goff tried again to pitch her idea to Nike by contacting “several high-ranking employees” via LinkedIn Messenger. The lawsuit said that Goff discovered that Nike was selling infringing bras in 2019. SherryWear is seeking injunctive relief to prevent Nike from continuing to infringe on the Pocket Bra Patents and monetary damages resulting from Nike’s infringement of the Pocket Bra Patents. The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts on July 17.

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