Family-owned U.S.A. Dawgs, a Las Vegas maker and marketer of EVA clog-type footwear since 2006, has sued Crocs. The 30-page, anti-trust complaint alleges Crocs has been misleading the public and consumers for more than a decade about its products being made of an exclusive, proprietary closed-cell resin called “Croslite.” Instead, the material is the common ethyl vinyl acetate used by many footwear companies, including the plaintiff who has been a supplier of EVA clogs to the CVS chain.
The complaint brings into question the validity of a footwear patent and design patent issued to the defendant in 2006, and suggests Crocs has been using “sham” patent lawsuits to litigate its competitors out of the market and correspondingly grow its market share in the category to more than 90%. One result of these actions, the plaintiff said, is that its brands have been regarded as Crocs counterfeits. The plaintiff alleges anti-trust injury and anti-competitive behavior by Crocs, to consumers and itself, as its aims to monopolize the EVA clog market.
