About
Us!
This site has been put together in response
to the recent publicity about Deckers'
trade marking the term ugg (and derivatives)
around the world.
Those behind the site are various
manufacturers and retailers of Australian
ugg boots who have formed an alliance to combat
this
outrageous 'stunt'. Whenever registering
trademarks, companies must perform due diligence
to determine
if the mark/s satisfy some basic criteria
- including that the mark/s are not generic and/or
descriptive.
To the best of our knowledge, there is also
an onus on the trademark offices to verify
that the mark/s do indeed satisfy this criteria.
Clearly the system has failed both
in
Australia and in the United States with respect
to "ugg" (and derivatives). One of the United States
marks has the words Original Ugg Boot
with UGG Australia underneath and a ram in the
middle. In 1986, when the examining attorney
at the US Patent and Trademark Office
asked some additional questions, she was told "There
is no significance of the term "UGG" in
the relevant trade or industry".
Given this mark suggests that the product
originates
from Australia, you would expect that
some sort of search was taken in Australia
to determine the validity of whether "UGG" was
or wasn't significant!
Clearly this did
NOT occur otherwise the search and
discovery process would have shown more
than one
business trading with ugg as part of
their business name. We have members
who have been trading since
before 1970.
Many of our members have
sold the boots to overseas customers
long before any mark was registered
in the US. The
Australian Sheepskin Association |
