Finally, something to write home about! The United States Postal Service (herein “USPS”) has announced it will officially grant a trademark license to Nike for its USPS inspired Air Force 1 sneakers. (Not sure what the heck a trademark license is? Scroll down to the bottom paragraph!)
The license pertains to a leaked image of an unreleased Air Force 1 with a confusingly similar looking USPS Priority Mail package sticker slapped on the back of the shoe. The rest of the shoe features a repeating diagonal print (like a packaging wrapper?)
USPS called out Nike for its hypocrisy for initiating legal proceedings the previous week against MSCHF for the Lil Nas X Air Max 97 “Satan Shoes,” when Nike is using USPS’ own intellectual property. Insert the shameless joke here: Got stuck for ages behind Satan in the line at the Post Office. For the devil takes many forms.
“This is an unfortunate situation where a brand as large as Nike, which aggressively protects its own intellectual property, has chosen to leverage another brand for its own gain,” the USPS said in a statement. “Officially licensed products sold in the marketplace expand the affinity for the Postal Service brand and provide incremental revenue through royalties that directly support it. Sales of unauthorized and unlicensed products deny support to the hardworking women and men of the Postal Service.”
USPS seriously protects its trademarks. As of the date of this blog post, there are about 1,483 trademarks on the United States Trademark and Patent Office database. Such marks were seen on the USPS’ launch of its own clothing line, a tactic employed to keep it afloat during 2020.
Now that USPS and Nike have reached a license agreement, the shoe might have a different look, since USPS is signing off on limited use of its trademarks and overall commercial impression, OR, Nike was just hoping USPS would sign off on this shoe and the design will remain as is. Regardless of what the outcome is, Nike fans are likely to ship any collaboration or design Nike chooses to release! We’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, make like the rapper Nelly and “get to stompin’ in your Air Force Ones.”
What is a trademark license? According to WIPO, a trademark owner (the licensor) grants permission to another (the licensee) to use that trademark on mutually agreed terms and conditions. The Licensor remains in control of the nature and quality of the goods or services sold in association with the trademark.