LL Bean agrees to injunction to finish Skechers shoe lawsuit

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – LL Bean, the clothes and outside gear firm, agreed to cease promoting a line of informal footwear to settle a lawsuit through which Skechers USA accused it of copying a design for its personal footwear, which have offered within the tens of millions.

U.S. District Choose Margaret Garnett in Manhattan authorized an injunction on Thursday that bars privately-held LL Bean from making, importing or promoting footwear that infringe two Skechers design patents till the final of the patents expires.

In a grievance filed in July, Skechers claimed that LL Bean’s Freeport footwear, named for that firm’s Maine hometown and which retailed for $99, infringed two patented designs for “heel cups” that encompass the again of the foot.

The world’s third-largest footwear firm accused LL Bean of attempting to piggyback on the success of its personal distinctive heel cup design, which it stated integrated “swish, sweeping, gently rolling traces and slopes” that resembled the form of a heel.

Different settlement phrases weren’t disclosed. Skechers had additionally sought unspecified damages. Its patents expire in 2038, in line with the grievance.

Neither LL Bean nor its attorneys instantly responded to requests for remark. Skechers and its attorneys didn’t instantly reply to comparable requests.

LL Bean was based in 1912. Skechers was based in 1992 and relies in Manhattan Seashore, California.

The case is Skechers USA Inc (NYSE:SKX) et al v LL Bean Inc, U.S. District Court docket, Southern District of New York, No. 24-05336.