Adidas sues Asics over fitness app
Adidas has brought Asics to court. Last Friday the German sport brand filed a counterfeiting charge against Asics America with the Delaware court of justice. Has the Japanese brand's US subsidiary copied Adidas' best-selling Stan Smith shoe? Or toyed with the highly sensitive subject of Adidas' three stripes? Nothing of the sort. World sport number two Adidas has brought Asics to court over the latter's alleged copying of some elements of its fitness app.
According to the German giant, the My Asics mobile app is in breach of ten patents registered by Adidas for its own fitness app. The charge is levelled specifically against Asics' FitnessKeeper app, developed by RunKeeper. Adidas has already shown in the past it is unrelenting on the subject of patents for sport performance apps. In 2014 it brought Under Armour to court for the same reason.
Running and fitness apps which encourage users to practice a sporting activity, track their performance data and give them access to specific offers have become a key asset in the sport sector. In the last few years, the industry's major players have invested over $1 billion in app acquisition and development. Asics, for example, bought Runkeeper for $84 million last year, while Adidas acquired Runtastic for a sum close to $240 million. Nike has been developing its own solutions for some time, while Under Armour is the biggest spender so far, with a $700 million investment on MapMyFitness, Endomondo and FitnessPal.
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