Real Australian Ugg Boots, Tony Mortel\'s hair is standing on end, an effect created by equal doses of gel and outrage. \"Who do they think they are?\" he fumes. \"Telling us what we can and can\'t call our product, trying to stop us from making a living. Well, they can stick their demands where the sun doesn\'t shine.\"
Tony Mortel\'s hair is standing on end, an effect created by equal doses of gel and outrage. \"Who do they think they are?\" he fumes. \"Telling us what we can Real Australian Ugg Boots and can\'t call our product, trying to stop us from making a living. Well, they can stick their demands where the sun doesn\'t shine.\"
Tony comes from seven generations of and, for the past 45 years his family has been making Uggs, the once dowdy sheepskin boots now worn by the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Moss. Their factory in Australia\'s Hunter Valley turns out 16,000 pairs a year. At least it used to, before a large US company across the Pacific Ocean began taking an unwelcome interest in their affairs.
Staff at Mortels Sheepskin Factory had just returned from their Christmas break when a letter arrived from the Melbourne solicitors of Deckers Outdoor Corporation, a Real Australian Ugg Boots California-based conglomerate. The letter, which was sent to 19 other Australian firms, informed them that Deckers owned all rights to the name Ugg and instructed them to stop using it or face litigation.
\"I just laughed,\" says Tony. \"I thought they were crazy. I threw it in the bin.\" But it was no laughing matter. Soon afterwards, at the instigation of Deckers, Mortels was ejected from eBay, the internet auction site where it had been selling Uggs to American consumers. Last Wednesday, it was ordered by Icann, the internet Real Australian Ugg Boots regulatory body, to stop using \"Ugg\" in its domain name.
The two dozen traders affected by such legal moves are reeling from shock and disbelief. For decades, they have been part of a thriving cottage industry founded on an Australian product that - according to folklore - dates back to the 1920s, when shearers used to wrap sheepskin around their feet to keep warm in the sheds.
Uggs, they argue, have always been called Uggs, originally an abbreviation of Ugly. No one bothered with trademarks because Ugg was a generic term. Everyone knew it meant a comfortable, flat-heeled sheepskin boot, although - until the current fashion craze - few people admitted to owning a pair. Brian Iverson, owner of Blue Mountains Ugg Boots, says of Deckers\' demands: \"It\'s like saying you can\'t call a car a car.\"
The problem is: someone did bother with trademarks. In 1971 a local surf champion, Shane Steadman, decided to capitalise on the growing popularity of Uggs among Australian - and visiting US - surfers, who were starting to recognise the appeal of a snug boot when they emerged shivering from the ocean. He began selling Uggs and registered the name.
Steadman was not the only Australian wave-rider with a sharp eye for a business opportunity. In 1979, so the story goes, Brian Smith arrived in New York with a few pairs of Uggs in his backpack. He set up a company, Ugg Holdings Inc, registered the Ugg trademark in 25 countries and in 1995 sold out to Deckers.
For a long time, not a peep was heard from the new American owners of the iconic Australian boot. The company sent out a flurry of warning letters five years ago, but did not follow them up. According to Middletons, its Melbourne lawyers, it was only when Australian manufacturers began selling Uggs on the internet to meet soaring overseas demand that Deckers felt obliged to crack down.
Not surprisingly, the Australian firms - most of them small family outfits with a handful of employees - are unimpressed with the Santa Barbara-based company\'s arguments. They say Brian Smith was awarded the trademarks in error and are planning court action to have them rescinded, at least in Australia.
Their only other choice is to give up and go under - for without the name Ugg, they say, they cannot sell their boots. \"People around the world know them as Ugg boots,\" says Tony Mortel. My family has been marketing them as Uggs for 45 years. For Deckers to say that we should give it all up, without compensation, is borderline monopolisation.\"
The Australian traders have united under the banner of the Ugg Boot Footwear Association and set up a fighting fund to finance the forthcoming legal battle. Those waiting in limbo include Westhaven Industries, a disabled services charity that employs 65 people at its factory in Dubbo, a small town in New South Wales. Ugg boots are the charity\'s most profitable product and, without them, the business would not survive.
Employees include Dougie Stewart, who has been making Ugg boots at Westhaven for 30 years and travels more than 60 miles each day to work. \"He\'s a brilliant worker and he loves what he does,\" says Gordon Tindall, the charity\'s general manager. \"If we had to close as a consequence of this, it would be devastating for our workers. This is all they know, and they won\'t get a similar job anywhere else.\"
