Eddie Oygur, the managing director of Australian Leather Pty Ltd, Sydney based manufacturer of Ugg boots, was hit with a multimillion-dollar law suit in 2016 by Deckers Outdoor Corporation, a multimillion-dollar US conglomerate, for selling a few dozen pairs of ugg boots in the US
Deckers has sued Australian Leather Pty Ltd and Eddie personally in a Chicago Court claiming trademark infringement and initially seeking to seize Eddie?s Ugg boot stock, his property and bank accounts ? which would bankrupt him.
Deckers claims it has the worldwide rights to the term ?Ugg? (apart from in Australia and New Zealand), while Eddie says the term is a generic term originating in Australia from the 1960s surfing community- and the term ?Ugg? was also well known in the US as an Australian product when hundreds of thousands of pairs were sold by Australians from the 1960s, before the word ?ugg? was improperly registered as a trademark in the US in 1987.
Mayday Plea for Aussie Battlers Test Court Case in Chicago
Aussie Ugg Boot maker facing battle of his life as he flies to the US today to face Jury trial in landmark case over use of the term ?Ugg? Plea for government to reverse its rejection of assistance in a case that has huge implications for Aussie Jobs.
Eddie and his company have incurred over $1 million in legal costs in the US
fighting the case, which is due to go before a jury trial in Chicago on Monday, 6
May 2019 (Sunday, 5 May 2019 Australian time)
Eddie said : ?This is not just about me and my business, it is about every Ugg
boot make in Australia who because of Deckers? Trademark of Ugg are stopped
from selling Ugg boots overseas. If we can knock out the trademark it would open
up to four thousand local jobs amongst dozens of Ugg boot makers here given
that there is a multibillion dollar a year Ugg market globally, estimated at more
than $AU8 billion annually?
Deckers has sued Australian Leather Pty Ltd and Eddie personally in a Chicago Court claiming trademark infringement and initially seeking to seize Eddie?s Ugg boot stock, his property and bank accounts ? which would bankrupt him.
