Nike Loses Bid to Save Shoelace Hole Patent at Federal Circuit

Nike Inc. failed to convince the Federal Circuit that an administrative patent tribunal improperly found one of its shoelace hole patent’s claims to be unpatentable.

Both the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and Adidas AG met the required “burden of persuasion” after the board raised its own challenge topatent for shoelace holes in knitted sneakers, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in a nonprecedential opinion. The PTAB had enough evidence to show the patent’s claim was unpatentable as obvious, the appeals court found.

Because both the PTAB and Adidas met the threshold, the three-judge panel ...