Skechers and Brooks are embroiled in another legal spat.
Brooks last week filed a suit accusing Skechers of trademark infringement. The lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in a Washington District Court, takes issue with Skechers’ use of the word “Beast” on its shoes. Brooks, which sells a sneaker model called “Beast” and features this word on its shoes, claims that Skechers’ recently released “Speed Beast” shoe infringes on Brooks’ trademark for this term and “irreparably harms” its franchise and “causes consumer confusion.”
According to Brooks, Skechers’ use of the word “Beast” represents an attempt to reach more serious athletes by leveraging the success of Brooks.
“By using Brooks’ Beast trademark, Skechers seeks to ride the coattails of Brooks and profit from Brooks’ long-standing trademark, BEAST, and Brooks’ hard-earned reputation for building premium products for runners,” the suit read.
Brooks said in the suit that it has sold millions of Beast running shoes and that the Beast mark is “one of Brooks’ most valuable trademark assets.” Brooks registered its Beast trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 2005. Skechers began selling its allegedly infringing Speed Beast shoe in March 2023, which featured the phrase “Speed Beast” on the tongue of the shoe.
Skechers declined to comment.
In September, Skechers and Brooks settled a trademark infringement lawsuit, in which Skechers had alleged that Brooks used a number “5” mark on its shoes that was “confusingly similar” to Skechers’ “S” mark it generally uses on its sneakers. In addition to the “5” mark, Skechers also took issue with the placement of Brooks’ mark — located on the top of the sneaker tongue and away from other designs — and said it was similar to the way Skechers displays its “S” mark.
