According to the Daily Economic News, on Tuesday local time, New Balance (New Balance) sporting goods company sued Decathlon’s American subsidiary in the Federal District Court of Massachusetts, accusing the logo design used on its Kiprun running shoes infringing New Balance’s trademark rights in the letter “N”.
According to the complaint, France-based Decathlon sells its Kiprun shoes to U.S. customers through online channels and third-party brick-and-mortar retailers. The complaint stated that two allegedly infringing designs were used on Kiprun shoes: one is similar to the letter K, and the other is a mirror image design, but New Balance believes that the mirror image logo “is undoubtedly an N.”
According to the complaint, Decathlon contends that although its logo “frequently uses a mirrored design, including when used alone, it is actually the letter K and not the N.”
New Balance said it has been using the letter “N” logo on footwear since the 1970s, has spent hundreds of millions of dollars promoting the trademark and sold hundreds of millions of pairs of shoes with the logo worldwide. The complaint also cites social media posts noting the logo’s similarity to the New Balance “N” logo.
New Balance said that the company and its lawyers have communicated with Decathlon many times since January 2026, but Decathlon refused to stop using the allegedly infringing trademark. The lawsuit requests the court to issue an injunction to prohibit Decathlon from using the allegedly infringing design, destroy products bearing the trademark, and compensate for losses. The specific amount will be determined at trial.
As of press time, Decathlon has not responded to this matter.
The “Daily Economic News” reporter noticed that New Balance had previously sued Nautica in the United States over the “N” logo and reached a settlement (in 2020), and also sued Michael Kors in 2021.
In 2017, New Balance won a trademark and unfair competition case against a domestic shoe manufacturer using the “New Boom” brand at the Suzhou Intermediate People’s Court, and was awarded a compensation of RMB 10 million (including reasonable rights protection expenses). It was called by lawyers the largest trademark infringement compensation received by a foreign company in China at that time.
