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about the Ugg Wars and Trademark Disputes
In Australia, and many other countries as well, Ugg boots (also spelt
ug and ugh) are a style of boots that has been used generically for
well over a hundred years. In 1984, an Australian formed an USA based
company and managed to trademark this generic term. When asked by the
USA federal trademark office's examiner, Susan Heller, on March the
7th 1986 "What is the significance of the term ugg?" She was told under
oath that "There is no significance of the term UGG in the relevant
trade or industry." This is despite the fact that many years prior;
ugg, ug, and ugh were all generic terms for sheepskin boots and were
so much a part of popular culture, where already referenced in Australian
dictionaries.
While generic terms can be snuck into the federal trademark office,
the law is quite clear that generic terms can't not be protected in
any legal court anywhere in the world. Despite this, Deckers Outdoor
Corporation and their subsidiary, UGG Holdings Inc. have been threatening
legal action against companies that continue to use the generic words
to describe the Australian icon, ugg boots.
Many livelihoods are being threatened by Decker's campaign which could
only be described as another example of a giant corporation intent on
monopolizing an industry that was never theirs to own in the first place.
The difference here is that UGG was questionably allowed to go through
the trademark process. But this does not mean the trademark cannot be
challenged and ultimately, overturned - something that we intend on
doing through a variety of methods.
In a recent article in "The Sunday Telegraph", it was reported that
Westhaven Industries, a non-profit organization, which employs 65 intellectually
disabled people to make ugg boots at its factory in Dubbo, Australia,
have also been threatened with legal action.
"We have been selling sheepskin products for 30 years, long before
ugg boots became trendy in America, and to have to give up the name
is just ridiculous," Mr. Sullivan, production manager, said.
"It's like registering the name sneakers – it's a generic term that
everyone uses."
Needless to say that the recent threats and legal harassment from UGG
Holdings Inc. and its parent company Deckers Outdoor Corporation has
outraged not only the dozens of manufactures, some who have been making
ugg boots since 1933, but the Australian public as well, many who are
now boycotting all of Deckers' other lines including Simple, Teva, and
of course UGG Australia which are now made in China.
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