Under Armour and Nike Settle Trademark Infringement Lawsuit

Since we are in the midst of March Madness, we here at Abnormal Use take this opportunity to relay a recent apropos settlement involving two sports brand powerhouses. According to the Baltimore Sun, last month, Under Armour and Nike settled a trademark infringement lawsuit arising from Nike’s use of the certain phrasing in its advertising.  In its complaint filed early last year in federal district court in Maryland, Under Armour alleged that Nike launched an advertising campaign that appropriated “I Will” prominently and repeatedly, which suggests Under Armour’s longstanding use of its iconic “I Will” tagline for its similar performance products.  Under Armour claimed that Nike used slogans such as “I will finish what I started” and “I will sweat while they sleep” in various social media ads.  The company also complained that Nike used a variation of Under Armour’s phrase “protect this house” by using the Nike tag line “I will protect my home court.” As one might expect, the terms of the settlement were not revealed.  (The Sun quotes Under Armour as saying only: “The litigation has been resolved on a confidential and mutually agreeable basis.”). But one can only imagine the settlement amount was a drop in Nike’s proverbial bucket of revenue.  Quite frankly, when we here at Abnormal Use first got wind of the “I Will” dispute, we thought it was Under Armour’s, not Nike’s, use of the phrase that was causing such flack.  Why?  “I Will” is an appropriate and clever response to Nike’s universally known command “Just Do It.”