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Nike and others have been sued by Jezign for infringement on their patents for illuminated footwear. In the year 2000, Jezign applied for a patent on a new way to illuminate the soles of athletic footwear through a manual switch. Recently, footwear companies have begun to pop up left and right with watered-down knockoffs. It is easy to distinguish some of these imitation shoes from Jezign footwear because these knockoffs do not have an air compartment in the sole which house the lights in the way Jezign does. Instead, they glue the lights all the way around the sole, similar to a do-it-yourself experiment. Also, most of the knockoff shoes do not have their lights incorporated on performance footwear such as Running or Basketball. There is also no gimmicky blinking or flashing of the lights on Jezign’s footwear but, rather, steady light once the switch is activated.
