Local business battles Columbia over rights to the trademark ‘Incrediwool’

It’s a case of David versus Goliath. The small local business, From the Ground Up , is calling out Columbia Sportswear after they say prAna, which is part of Columbia, used its trademark, Incrediwool.

“We own the rights to it. We want protections on it,” Rami Nasr, the founder of From the Ground Up, said. “It’s still a name that we’re proud of, and it’s a name we came up with.”

Nasr trademarked the name Incrediwool back in 2021 and recently discovered that prAna has also been using it for crew-neck shirts.

“I spent years obsessing over the details of what Incrediwool is, you know, it’s a proper blend of merino wool that is supposed to help people perform better on the mountain, perform better in their sports,” he said. “They advertise that it’s an Italian recycled wool blend that lives up to its name and really Incrediwool is something much more than that.”

Nasr said that he informed Columbia of the trademark, and they agreed to stop using the name after this year. However, he said, the confusion has cost them.

“It was just disappointing to hear that, you know, Columbia was just going to continue on with this name and not step up and kind of help make things right for us,” he said.

KIRO 7 reached out to Columbia for comment and a spokesperson for prAna called the allegations false and said in a statement:

“prAna and FTGU independently came up with the term Incrediwool. FTGU filed their trademark application before prAna, but a third-party trademark clearance service missed it, in part because they were looking for use with apparel, not socks. Several months after prAna introduced their overshirts in 2023, FTGU notified prAna they were using the term “Incrediwool” for a material used in some of their socks. prAna promptly offered to discontinue using the term and has stopped use with 2024 styles. Several months ago, prAna wrote to FTGU stating that we will not use the name in the future, but we did not hear back from them. We’re surprised that they would make false allegations about our intentions. They can’t take yes for an answer. prAna also offered to enter a formal settlement with FTGU, but they demanded an exorbitant amount of money even though they were not harmed.”

Nasr said he hopes that by raising awareness of the situation, Columbia will make things right.

“As a small business we have a duty to protect our own names and how we do that is by informing more people to see that Incrediwool actually belongs to us and it’s not what prAna or Columbia is advertising it as.”

FTGU responded to Columbia with the following statement:

We went to the press because we have an obligation to protect our intellectual property. As a small business facing a giant like Columbia, we currently lack the financial resources to pursue legal action, a fact that large corporations often exploit to their advantage. This means we have to tell people who the “real” Incrediwool actually is. We were dumbfounded and disappointed by Columbia/prAna’s statements to Kiro 7 on Monday. Therefore, we need to clarify a few points:

First, we were harmed by prAna’s use because they flooded the market with infringing advertisements. This destroyed our ability to appear in search results whenever anyone searched “Incrediwool” online. We told this to prAna back in early 2024, yet they denied causing any harm in their statement to Kiro 7

Second, to assess the damage, we utilized SEO experts to quantify the cost of reversing the harm done with the wrongful use of Incrediwool. This estimate formed the basis of our settlement request. prAna, however, dismissed our demand as “exorbitant”, despite the considerable profits they’ve likely generated from their Incrediwool line. prAna offered no compensation in response to our request to undo the damage they have caused.

Third, rather than acknowledging their mistake, prAna deflected responsibility to an unnamed search company they allegedly used for trademark research. They claimed socks didn’t appear in their apparel search, which is puzzling given that socks and apparel fall under the same trademark classification. A simple, free search on the US Trademark Office website would have revealed our existing trademark for Incrediwool which we have owned since 2021.

We remain hopeful that prAna will do the right thing by compensating us for their improper usage and gain of our trademark, at a detriment to us. But we are still waiting on a workable counter proposal that includes actual compensation for what they’ve done.