BOSTON, Nov. 15, 2006 — The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed this week the non-infringement judgment that Goodwin Procter litigators obtained more than one year ago for adidas.
Almost three years ago, a North Carolina company called Akeva, Inc. sued adidas for patent infringement, claiming that a wide range of adidas’s popular “a3” shoes infringe two Akeva patents. Goodwin Procter defended adidas in the district court and won a judgment of non-infringement. The firm has been continuing to represent adidas through the appeal, and in early October the case was argued before a three-judge panel of the Federal Circuit. The panel held that the lower court properly construed Akeva’s patent claims to require a detachable or adjustable heel, and affirmed the ruling that adidas’s shoes do not infringe those patents.
Doug Kline argued the appeal for a team that included Richard Myrus, Chris Stamos, Andrew Jagenow and Jonathan Lent.