Nike sues retailer selling unauthorised sneaker NFTs
Sneaker giant Nike has sued online reseller StockX in a US court for selling images of its shoes as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Nike said StockX’s NFTs infringe on its intellectual property rights and trademarks which is likely to cause confusion for customers. In the lawsuit Nike is seeking unspecified money for damages and a court order blocking their sales.
In a court filing submitted yestereday, the sports retailer alleged that “StockX has chosen to compete in the NFT market not by taking the time to develop its own intellectual property rights, but rather by blatantly freeriding, almost exclusively, on the back of Nike’s famous trademarks and associated goodwill.”
Last month, StockX announced the launch of Vault NFTs on its website, claiming that purchasers of the digital tokens would also own a “corresponding physical item” which could be redeemed at any time.
Nike alleges that StockX promised purchasers of the NFTs access to exclusive benefits and physical products which the footwear giant never authorised. The complaint said StockX has sold over 500 Nike-branded NFTs.
Detroit-based StockX, a platform for reselling sneakers, handbags and other goods, was valued at more than $3.8bn last year.
The lawsuit said complaints about the NFTs’ “inflated prices and murky terms of purchase and ownership” have hurt Nike’s business reputation.
In the court filing, the footwear giant said that new technologies, such as NFTs, create an opportunity for consumers to be exploited. “Novel product offerings, burgeoning technologies, and gold rush markets tend to create opportunities for third parties to capitalize on the goodwill of reputable brands and create confusion in the marketplace,” the filing stated.
It comes as Nike prepares to release “a number of virtual products” later this month in conjunction with the digital art studio RTFKT, which it snapped up in December.
Read more: Nike snaps up NFT fashion start up RTFKT in metaverse push