Nike demands the manufacturer of the 'Satan Shoes' of Lil Nas X for registered trademark infraction

New York (CNN Business) - Nike sued the art collective behind the "Satan Shoes" of Lil Nas X that have caused an angry reaction on social networks.

In a lawsuit filed on Monday, Nike accuses MSCHF Product Studio, INC.of registered trademark infraction on the 666 nike tennis pairs modified manufactured in collaboration with the singer of "Old Town Road".The 666 pairs sold out on Monday.

MSCHF has not responded to repeated requests for comments on demand.

In his lawsuit, Nike asks the Court to order MSCHF to "permanently stop" the orders of Lil Nas X Satan Shoes "not authorized".The demand indicates that users of social networks have threatened to boycott Nike for the controversial tennis.

Lil nas x does not appear as part of the demand.The musician's representatives did not respond to the calls or emails requesting comments on Monday night.

"It is likely that MSCHF and their Unauthorized Satan Shoes cause confusion and dilution and create an erroneous association between MSCHF and Nike products," says the sportswear company in her complaint."In the short time elapsed since the announcement of Satan Shoes, Nike has suffered significant damage to his good will, even among consumers who believe Nike supports Satanism.".

Nike has issued statements to various media, including CNN, clarifying that "it does not have a relationship with Lil Nas or MSCHF" and that "Nike did not design or released these shoes and we did not support them".

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The Nike Air Max 97 black and modified red tennis, adorned with a bronze pentagram dije.The company also launched a couple of "Jesus Shoes" made to measure in 2019.

In his complaint, Nike says that the Satan Shoes prominent their famous Swoosh logo prominently.

The controversy began last week with the launch of the music video of Lil Nas X, "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)".The video portrays the singer dressed in a provocative way as a fallen angel and a demon who rides a stripper tube to hell where he gives an erotic dance to the devil.

After launching the video on Friday, Lil Nas advanced the launch of his new Satan Shoes on Twitter.

The day after Lil Nas X launched the music video, he replied to the reactions with a publication that said: "I spent all my adolescence hating myself because all the m **** that all of you preached would happen to me for being gay ", wrote."So I hope you are angry, remain angry, feel the same anger you teach us to have towards ourselves".

What they say lawyers of registered trademarks

The episode has all the ingredients for a potential historical legal battle on the current limits of the Intellectual Property Law, according to several registered trademarks, who say that Nike has solid foundations for their demand.

"Yes, Nike has an interesting case for registered trademark and dilution by sluster," said Alexandra J.Roberts, Professor of Brand Law and Entertainment at the Franklin Pierce Law Faculty of New Hampshire University."Consumers can be deceived to believe that Satan Shoes are authorized or backed by Nike.Nike could also argue that use damages its reputation by associating its brand with satanic symbols ".

Roberts and other lawyers said that the problem of the registered trademark is commonly known as the doctrine of the first sale, which gives people who buy a copy of a product with copyright the right to resell it without the explicit permission of the explicit permission of thecreator.

It is a legal basis that gives artists who buy and reuse individual products with copyrights the ability to express and benefit from their own creativity, according to trade lawyer Josh Gerben of Gerben DogTt PLLC.Gerben said that Nike tennis redesigners like MSCHF usually sell their work in online markets.

"There are all kinds of artists who come out and take a shoe and make a lot of personalized art in the shoe and they may resell it for US $ 1.000-3.000 ", said Gerben."This is something that Nike is very conscious and has done absolutely nothing to get because there is a tennis culture here.".

The problem for Lil Nas X and MSCHF in this case, according to Gerben, are the hundreds of shoes that were sold, since individual works of art are easier to defend in court than the articles produced by mass produced.

"People think Nike is behind something because there are many of these [shoes]," he said."It's not just a work of art that an artist took a shoe and made.It is that someone took a lot of Nike shoes, customized them exactly in the same way and is selling them to some extent in such a sophisticated way that people think Nike is involved ".