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Bikila family suing Vibram over use of name

Vibram Bikila EVO
Vibram Bikila EVO

After already losing a class action suit over unsubstantiated claims about the health benefits of their products, Vibram’s marketing team is in hot water again.

The family of two-time Olympic marathon champion Abede Bikila is suing the company for the use of their name without permission.

Vibram named a line of their popular barefoot running shoes after Bikila, who won the 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome with no shoes. He also won the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, with shoes on.

Vibram even, without permission, trademarked the name in 2010, at the start of the boom in barefoot running shoes. Bikila’s son Teferi, who is 45, lives in Oregon and, on Monday, filed a lawsuit against the company in Tacoma, Wash.

The lawsuit claims the company is breaking Washington’s Property Rights Act, which allows “successors, heirs, or other transferees” to assert rights to the names of the deceased.

Bikila is remembered for shattering the Olympic marathon record by eight minutes in 1960 as a last-minute addition to the race when another Ethiopian runner dropped out. He ran without shoes because he did not like the ones issued to him and he was used to training barefoot.

The runner had a short but bright career before a car accident paralyzed him in 1969. He died in 1973.

 

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