Eddie Oygur, a maker of ugg boots from West Sydney, has lost his legal battle against US shoe giant Deckers.

Oygur runs a company called Australian Leather, and was sued by the giant after selling 13 pairs of boots to US customers. While in Australia “ ugg boot ” is a generic and colloquial term referring to sheepskin lined slipper boots, Deckers owns the company UGG and has claimed that Oygur’s use of the word is a forgery. brand.

Deckers owns the UGG brands in markets such as the US and UK.

In 2019, a Chicago jury ruled in favor of Deckers and Oygur was ordered to pay US $ 450.00 – or AU $ 574,560. The jury declared that while ugg was a colloquial term in Australia, it did not share the same meaning in the United States and concluded that the word ugg was not subject to the doctrine of foreign equivalents. This is a directive preventing foreign words for categories from being filed in the United States.

Ogyur’s attorneys then appealed the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Washington DC Federal Circuit.Ogyur argued in his appeal that the foreign equivalents doctrine should have prevented the mark. from the word uggs at all.

On Monday, the appeal was dismissed for no reason.

Speaking to the Court of Appeal, Oygur said: “It’s not just about me, it’s about Australia’s takeover of ‘ugg’.

“The mark should never have been transferred to the United States in the first place”

Oygur now wants to take his appeal to the United States Supreme Court.

Featured Image: iStock / Christopher Davidson