In January 2019 the defendant sent the plaintiff a cease and desist letter claiming that the bow design infringed on the defendant’s design patent. The plaintiff responded with a lawsuit requesting that the court issue a declaratory judgement of non-infringement. The plaintiff claims that the court should grant this request because the plaintiff’s design patents cover functional aspects of a shoe and that the design is not novel because other shoe manufactures produced designs which feature a bow, before the defendant. While the plaintiff give examples of shoes with bows as evidence the defendant’s design is not novel, it does not elaborate on how the bow design is functional.