Dash for booty spurs uggly war
July 16, 2009FANS of the humble Ugg boot will join forces to try to save the name of the famous Australian footwear.
Manufacturers, retailers and wearers will help form an international uggies action group.
They will band together to tackle a
California-based Deckers Corporation bought an Australian ugg boot company five years ago, registered the name in 25 countries, and insists no one else has the right to use it.
Its lawyers have contacted about 20 Australian companies, demanding they stop using the name “ugg boot”.
But local manufacturers of the distinctive Australian footwear say the Americans have no right to tell them what to call their boots.
They insist the name “ugg boot” is generic, like the term sandshoe or thong.
Manufacturer Tony Mortel, whose family company has made the boots since 1958, is helping set up the international association, and he urged all Australian ugg boot makers, retailers and wearers to join.
Mr Mortel said his company received an e-mail from Deckers’ lawyers 10 days ago about using the words “Ugg boots“.
“If we can’t call our product the name we have for years, what can we bloody do?” he said.
“How can an American company register a generic, descriptive term and then hold an industry to ransom?
“It is like a pie or a pair of jeans. If they think they are going to get away with it, they are crazy.”
Lawyer Tony Watson, who represents Deckers in
“Deckers is not trying to stop competition at all,” he said.
“They don’t have a problem with anyone making sheepskin boots. It is the brand — that is all this is about.”
Mr Watson, a partner at Middletons Lawyers in
He said Deckers had bought Ugg Holdings, the ugg boot company started by the surfer, and had since invested millions of dollars in the brand.
“My client, ultimately, just wants to preserve its brand. I don’t know how far they will go in that quest,” he said.
The move comes as ugg boots — once dismissed as ugly and anti-fashion — continue to cement their place as must-have footwear.
Celebrity ugg-boot-wearers including Mel Gibson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Pamela Anderson, Cameron Diaz, Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow and Leonardo DiCaprio have helped the footwear become fashionable.
Ugg boots sell for up to $
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