Boot buyer walks into copyright row
Thursday 15th July 2010, 2:29PM BST.
AN ISLANDER is warning others to be wary of buying Ugg boots online as she faces a possible £5,000 legal bill to free a pair impounded by Customs in the UK.
Karen Gibson, 50, spent £100 ordering a pair of boots from Australian website the Ugg Store.
But she has now received a letter from the UK Border Agency (UKBA) telling her the boots, which bore the word ‘ugg’, infringed copyright laws.
She discovered that the problem arose because of an international copyright dispute between a group of Australian boot retailers who claim they have sold shoes called ‘ugg boots’ since the 1970s and US firm Deckers Outdoor Corporation, which bought the trademark ‘UGG Australia’ in 1999 and has since tried to stop other companies from selling boots bearing the name ‘ugg’.
The company Mrs Gibson bought boots from is not affiliated with Deckers, so the UKBA – who regard them as infringing on Deckers’ copyright – seized the goods.
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I don’t understand why Ms Gibson would be responsible for the 5K legal bill though. At worse I would have thought she would lose the boots but how on earth was she to know?
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Caveat emptor. Tread carefully or this could turn Uggly!
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poor lady. she should have asked someone, ‘cos i’m sure there are shops here that sell ladies’ footwear, and some even probably stock some boots if you ask the girl. maybe they’d have them out the back but surely they would have some boots. in this day and age, you’d think. i suppose if she needed a kangaroo or something like that, she would have to go to Australia or somewhere else. but why a kangaroo, in guernsey? it doesn’t make sense really. i bought a good pair of boots once on the bridge. they lasted well and were really comfortable too.
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I now live in Oz, and I didn’t know. My ugg boots are from Tassie so I’m safe
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UGG is a generic name for this type of footwear, ask any AUSSIE and surely its up to GUERNSEY customs to open packages addressed to this island.
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Donkeys Life
Guernsey Customs [unlike the Isle of Man] open anything and everything addressed to the island; even letters from the UK.
However one thing puzzles me. Personally I’d have thought that the US probably has more to fear from terrorists and suspicious packages [sorry, Guerns, but I don't actually think Bin Laden is particularly interested in your island] but even the US doesn’t rip open letters; and ‘printed materials’ [i.e. books and magazines etc] do NOT need customs clearance in the US. Not so with Guernsey. There has to be Customs declaration on ALL things, including letters, [ask Royal Mail for verification]. Now is this Guernsey being security consciousness or just downright nosy?
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