Columbia Sportswear sues Wuxly over Design Patent Infringement

Columbia Sportswear has reportedly decided to sue a Canadian outerwear company named ‘Wuxly’. It is alleged that Wuxly committed an infringement of the design patent covering heat-reflective material.

A lawsuit was filed on the date of April 27 at the US District Court for the District of Oregon, Columbia. It was claimed that the Sabertooth line of jackets which was launched by Wuxly uses lightweight underlining that is responsible for infringing its Omni-Heat Reflective material. There is a reason why Columbia chose to sue Wuxly in its home state of Oregon under the alien venue rule and that is Wuxly is registered in Canada and has no sort of established place of business in any state of the US.

The design patent-in-suit is ‘US number 655,921’.However, this infringed design patent deals with a heat-reflective material that helps the body in retaining its heat, further allowing the body to breathe and wicking its moisture. The patent covers specifically the ‘ornamental design’ in the manner of how the lining is woven.

However, Wuxly describes its brand as one of those brands which are based around ‘sustainable Canadian outerwear’. Interestingly, any customer can buy the Sabertooth jacket which is still available for sale on the website of Wuxly. It would cost someone around CAD $1299 (US$1056). Wuxly further describes its Sabertooth as ‘the best jacket in the world’ which has a feature of reflective underlining for the purpose of maximizing body heat in the coldest of conditions ever.

Columbia says, “We first informed Wuxly of its infringing products in November 2020, but despite the Canadian company’s CEO acknowledging receipt of the letter, Wuxly continued to sell its Sabertooth products with the infringing underlining.”

The Oregon brand seeks preliminary and permanent injunctions against Wuxly from the district court. Further, Columbia aims at banning its Canadian rival from selling the allegedly infringing jacket line in the whole of the US. Apart from this, Columbia is also seeking disgorgement of all Wuxly’s profits and further a reasonable amount of royalty calculated from the allegedly infringing sales and treble damages.