Recently, Kizik's patent management firm Fast IP filed a patent infringement lawsuit against subsidiaries of Skechers in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, and the United States at the Munich division of the Unified Patent Court (UPC). The lawsuit alleges that Skechers' recently promoted “Slip-ins” series bears similarities to Kizik's product line.

No preliminary injunction or revocation action has been sought at this time, though Fast IP filed parallel infringement litigation months ago in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Kizik is a U.S. footwear company whose parent company, HandsFree Labs, Inc., holds over 200 granted and pending patents covering various “one-step” shoe-entry systems, including its Cage®, Unified™, Flex Arc™, and Squeeze It® technologies. Since 2019, the company has licensed its technology to partners such as Nike.

The patent at issue is Kizik's European Patent EP 4 003 084 (protecting a shoe design with stabilizers), invented by Kizik founder Michael Pratt and granted by the European Patent Office this year. In a parallel infringement lawsuit filed in Texas, Kizik asserts six patents (Patent Nos. 11,633,006; 12,274,325; 11,871,811; 12,121,096; D1038607; and D1037641) against multiple Skechers models.