Lululemon Sues Calvin Klein

Lululemon yoga pants wall | BCBusiness
Vancouver’s Lululemon is flexing its legal muscles in a new lawsuit against American designer Calvin Klein.

Vancouver’s own yogawear maker is marking its niche territory with a patent lawsuit against one of America’s biggest designers.

Vancouver’s Lululemon doesn’t seem to be as Zen as its marketing campaigns would have us believe.
 
The yogawear manufacturer is aggressively marking its territory in the niche activewear market in court. Earlier this week, the company filed a lawsuit against well-known American design house Calvin Klein for three patent infringements.
 
The company claims in a Delaware filing that Klein incorporated elements from Lululemon’s waistband designs and pant styles into Klein’s “Performance” line of activewear.
 
But really, how many different ways can you design a waistband for yoga pants?
 
It’s certainly understandable that the retailer is protective of its signature product, but the move feels more like an assertive retail strategy as it expands its extremely successful lines of yoga and running clothes across the border into the U.S. market.
 
The company is no longer an up-and-comer and may be cementing its status as a tour-de-force high-end retail brand by flexing its legal muscles. Thus far, 108 Lululemon stores have popped up in the U.S. in addition to its 47 stores in Canada and generated $1 billion in sales last year.