may contain original research

Posté le 02/20/2010 à 01:39 - Poster un Commentaire

may contain original research

In 1971, Shane Stedman registered the term Ugh-boot and other terms as trademark with the Australian Trade Mark Registry. These trademarks lapsed due to non-usage, but were subsequently sold to the American company Deckers Outdoor Corporation, which also registered other trademarks, such as UGG Australia in 1999. By 2003, Deckers had begun a campaign of legal threats against Australian manufacturers and vendors using variants of "ugh boots" to describe their wares.

As a result, Bruce cheap ugg and Bronwyn McDougall, owners of Uggs-N-Rugs, a Western Australia-based manufacturer, started legal action to have ug, ugg, and ugh boots removed from the Australian Trademarks Registry. In January 2006, they succeeded in having Deckers's Australian trademark removed, and the words and the names were once again generic terms for sheepskin boots. Ian Thompson, Delegate of the Registrar of Trade Marks, stated: "[t]he evidence overwhelmingly supports the proposition that the terms UGH BOOT(S), UG BOOT(S) and UGG BOOT(S) are interchangeably used to describe a specific style of sheepskin boot and are the first and most natural way in which to describe these goods which should innocently come to the minds of people making this particular style of sheepskin boot

Deckers Outdoor Corporation decided not to challenge the decision in a higher court, but still hold the trademark in the United States and the European Union and continue to refer to their product as "UGG footwear". They have continued a campaign against other companies referring to products as "ugg", "ugly", or "ugh" boots. They claim that they continually monitor usage of the above names on the World Wide Web, using legal means to shut uggs outlet down any auction or website that they feel infringes their trademark.[17] Deckers have also registered the domain uggsnrugs.com,[18][19] The website also lists the results of Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy cases taken to an arbitration provider.

The following is what Deckers state at the domain related to Uggs-n-Rugs:

¡° Back in 1978, young Australian surfer Brian Smith and his American cohort Doug Jensen introduced the UGG brand sheepskin boots to the United States. In 1978/79 they Trademarked the name, bought their first container of Uggs and began an initial sales trek from San Diego to Santa Cruz. Jensen left the company before the end of the first year, while Smith continued on tenaciously, eventually  making his rags to riches story come true.

The UGG trademark in the United States was first registered in 1984 but has gone through several stylistic changes and changes in ownership until its present state. A stylized version of UGG, Serial number 73492075, was first registered in 1984 by UGG imports, which was eventually acquired by Deckers. This mark was abandoned in 1985. In 1985, they then registered trademark 73571139 which featured cture of a sheep along with a stylized version of UGG and the words ORIGINAL UGG BOOT AUSTRALIA. This mark was abandoned in 1987.