July 11 has become synonymous with 7-Eleven, as the convenience store giant has given out free Slurpees on that day for nearly a quarter century.

And now Nike is looking to illegally capitalize on the special occasion, according to a lawsuit filed in New York federal court.

7-Eleven has accused the athletic apparel and footwear brand of stealing its distinctive orange, green and red stripe design for a new shoe – the Air Max 95 – it planned to release on July 11.

  • 7-Eleven has used its original design mark for nearly 60 years and a tricolor mark featuring stripes since 1987, according to the lawsuit.
  • In addition to being featured with store services, the tricolor mark is also used for 7-Eleven-branded apparel, footwear and accessories, the suit says.


“Notwithstanding 7-Eleven’s registered and common law rights in its tri-color mark, defendant has designed and plans imminently to release a shoe … bearing a confusingly similar imitation of 7-Eleven’s tri-color mark – without authorization from 7-Eleven,” the complaint says.

Don’t Miss A Thing: SUBSCRIBE To PPAI Newslink

Alleging unfair competition, trademark infringement and trademark dilution, 7-Eleven has asked the court to permanently block Nike from marketing or selling footwear bearing confusingly similar imitations of its tricolor mark and award unspecified damages.

  • Nike should also have to give up any profits from its sales of the product, 7-Eleven argues.


“Nike’s infringement is a deliberate and willful effort to associate its footwear with 7-Eleven by copying or imitating the tri-color mark,” the suit says. “Nike’s misleading practices and misappropriation of 7-Eleven’s tri-color mark likely will cause – and indeed already have caused – confusion among the public and likely will deceive consumers as to the infringing footwear’s source, sponsorship, endorsement or affiliation.”

As of Wednesday, July 8, it appears that Nike has pulled the 7-Eleven-inspired Air Max 95 shoes from the Nike SNKRS App.

Branded Merch Perspective

Protecting intellectual property is a major concern for the branded merchandise industry, which is fueled by creativity and innovation.

  • Trademarks, copyrights and patents are designed to distinguish one’s products or services from another’s.
  • Those protections enable customers to know what they can expect, ultimately building brand loyalty.


Although the need to protect IP isn’t called into play until someone infringes on it, suppliers, distributors, decorators and business service providers should keep an eye on the market to remain vigilant. For example, suppliers are urged to file a patent application before public disclosure.

RELATED: Avoiding Trademark Trouble: 3 Strategies For Safer Merchandising

“If you wait to file, you may waive your rights or limit the remedies,” said Justin Miller, Esq., a patent attorney with Larson & Larson, at the 2019 PPAI Product Responsibility Summit.

  • In a landmark legal victory for the branded merch industry in 2018, a federal court jury ruled in favor of ETS Express after the supplier was sued for alleged trademark infringement by Can’t Live Without It, LLC, dba S’well Bottle.


Conversely, you don’t want to infringe upon someone else’s IP when creating or designing products. When accepting an order, distributors should avoid the obvious such as Disney, Star Wars, Marvel characters and the like, as well as famous landmarks, slogans, logos, likenesses of celebrities and photos and art of unknown origin.

“Fair use laws remain extremely gray, and companies incorporating copyrighted assets into their work should be aware that the case-by-case and context-sensitive evaluation lends itself to much subjective speculation about how a court of law, i.e., a judge or a panel of judges, may apply an objective analysis in determining whether a use of a copyrighted work is fair and thus non-infringing,” wrote Cory Halliburton, an attorney with Freeman Law and general counsel for PPAI, in a 2023 commentary on the Copyright Act’s ‘fair use’ doctrine.