Nike Appeals Adidas Shoelace-Hole Patent Win to Supreme Court

The US Supreme Court should consider whether an administrative patent tribunal can reject replacement patent claims based on the board’s own reasoning instead of arguments submitted by a party, Nike Inc. said following a loss in a long-running dispute with Adidas AG.

The American athletic shoe giant asked the justices to weigh whether the Patent Trial and Appeal Board may raise its own grounds to invalidate a challenged patent—as opposed to merely deciding the merits of grounds raised by others—and decide “whether the Board may rely on that new ground to reject a patent-holder’s substitute claim as unpatentable,” according ...