K-Swiss Successfully Knocks On Clouds Cushioned-Sneaker Patent in Reexamination

Claims distinguished by a limitation on an “optimum or workable range” of previously disclosed “general conditions” are likely unpatentable for obviousness, in light of a nonprecedential opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (K-Swiss Inc. v. Glide N Lock GmbH, Fed. Cir., 2013-1316, 4/23/14).

Switzerland-based On Clouds GmbH, formerly Glide’n Lock GmbH, was granted a patent (U.S. Patent No. 7,181,866) in February 2007, on an outsole for running shoes. The invention addresses problems in prior art air or gel cushions—not absorbing shocks from an oblique direction or, when absorbing such shocks, a destabilizing ...