Rockport Co., Inc. v. Deer Stags, Inc.
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
65 F. Supp. 2d 189 (1999)
- Written by Jody Stuart, JD
Facts
Rockport Co., Inc. (plaintiff) owned a design patent for the ProWalker World Tour (ProWalker) shoe-upper design. Deer Stags, Inc. (Deer) (defendant) sold the Destination shoe, which Rockport alleged infringed the ProWalker design patent. The ProWalker design patent was composed of drawings showing the shoe upper from various perspectives and showed each of the following features: an elongated heel counter wrapped around the rear of the shoe, located on both sides of the shoe, outlined with a double row of stitching; five eyelets on each side of an eyestay, with the top eyelet placed in a narrow ankle collar; the ankle collar raised at the rear, with a seam on both sides of the raised portion; a gap between the ankle collar and the heel counter; a thin curved panel stitched with a half-moon pattern connecting the bottom portions of the eyestay; and a heel tab that intersected the raised portion of the ankle collar, with a stitch line at the intersection. The Destination shoe had each of these same features. Additionally, the ProWalker patent drawings showed a mudguard wrapped along the sides of the shoe around the front of the shoe in one piece, curving upward and then downward along each side. Also, there was a double layer of the shoe upper that extended from the bottom of the eyestay to a stitch line extending from the heel counter to between the second and third eyelets. The Destination shoe mudguard was broken into several pieces. The smaller piece curved upward and then downward along each side of the shoe. Also, the Destination shoe had a seam extending from the heel counter to between the second and third eyelets.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Keenan, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 821,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 989 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
