Last week, tired of being walked all over by Fila, Sketchers slammed Fila with a lawsuit for unfair competition, trade dress infringement, design patent infringement, and diution. The suit claims that the design of the Fila AMAZEN MEMORY MOC is confusingly similar to that of the Sketchers GO WALK.

The Complaint filed by Sketchers highlights the simlarities between the shoes through sketches and photographs and notes that the shoe uppers, toe caps, portal hole, and stitching in the Fila shoe are "confusingly similar" to that of the Sketchers shoe. Sketchers claims trade dress in the stitching, the toe cap edging, and the portal hole and alleges that Fila's use of its trade dress is likely to deceive consumers and cause confusion.

Sketchers sent Fila a cease and desist letter in July 2013, and Fila agreed to cease manufacture of the AMAZEN MEMORY MOC and redesign its shoe. However, a year later, the shoe is still available for purchase.

The suit also includes a dilution count. Sketchers claims that the GO WALK is "widely recognized by the general consuming public as a designation of the source of the goods as emanating from Sketchers." I'm not sure the Trademarkologists would agree that the GO WALK shoes are famous just yet...famously ugly perhaps. Sketchers claims that Fila's use of the GO WALK trade dress on the AMAZEN MEMORY MOC harms Sketchers' reputation by wrongly suggesting that the AMAZEN MEMORY MOC has some affilation or association with Sketchers.

Stay tuned to see if the Court kicks Fila to the curb or tells Sketchers to take a hike.

If you were previously unfamiliar with the GO WALK shoe like I was, take a look at this commercial:

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