Case T 90/16, Thomas Murphy v EUIPO – Nike Innovate, 4 July 2017 (Electronic Watch Bracelet) marks the latest stage in a battle between a lone inventor and the mighty Nike.  Having had the pleasure of meeting Mr Murphy, the applicant for invalidity of Nike’s design, I will try to keep this post as brief as possible and readers should be aware that his cause has my sympathy, though not my involvement.

The Nike design was registered in 2012 and, in August 2013, Mr Murphy filed to invalidate it.  It was upheld at first instance (in Invalidity Decision ICD 9251), on appeal (Appeal Board Decision R0736/2014-3) and, four years on, before the GC.  We wait with interest to see whether it will go further.

Although the case is about the validity of Nike’s design RCD 002159640-0002, the points of interest arise from the prior art which was Mr Murphy’s own design RCD 000264379-0001 for ‘flexible LCD watch bands’.