Nike sues shopping platform StockX over sneaker NFTs

SAN FRANCISCO

Athletics giant Nike has filed a lawsuit in New York against shopping platform StockX for creating and marketing NFTs -- the tamper-proof digital property certificates -- based on the brand’s products without permission.

The company’s lawyers accused US-based StockX of “minting” NFTs using Nike trademarks and trading on the brand’s “goodwill” to market them.

StockX is “selling those NFTs at heavily inflated prices to unsuspecting consumers who believe or are likely to believe that those ‘investible digital assets’ (as StockX calls them) are, in fact, authorized by Nike when they are not,” according to the complaint.

Nike is seeking damages and a court injunction to force StockX to stop the sales.

In its complaint, Nike describes NFTs as an “exciting way for brands to interact with their consumers in and out of the ‘metaverse.’”

But, “this new frontier has swiftly become a virtual playground for infringers to usurp the goodwill of some of the most famous trademarks in the world and use those trademarks without authorization to market their virtual products and generate ill-gotten profits,” Nike added.

According to the group, StockX has already sold more than 550 Nike-branded NFTs.