Brooks Must Face Puma Suit Over ‘Nitro’ Trademark, Shoe Design

Brooks Sports Inc. failed to convince a Washington federal judge to throw out a trademark and patent lawsuit brought by Puma SE over running shoes.

Puma stated a plausible claim for infringement because a side-by-side comparison of Brooks’s Aurora BL shoe and Puma’s US Patent No. D897,075 demonstrates the designs are similar in curvature and symmetry, the US District Court for the Western District of Washington said in an order issued Tuesday. The court also joined Lloyd IP, the purported owner of the global rights to “nitro,” to determine whether Puma can enforce the trademark.

The German shoe company sued ...