Ugg Succeeds in a Design Infringement Case

Famous shoe company Ugg Australia, part of US company Deckers Outdoor Corporation has won a registered design infringement action against Dutch shoe company Intermedium Shoes B.V. for selling replicas of its Ugg’s popular Bailey Button design shoe. The replicas were being sold in a German retail outlet which were traced back to Intermedium. The Hague District Court confirmed that Ugg’s Bailey Button is a Registered Community Design in the European Union.Â

As a result, the Hague District Court ordered Intermedium to recall and destroy all its replica stock with immediate effect, produce a list of customers who purchased the infringing product and report on the the numbers manufactured and supplied. Intermedium sought to invalidate Decker’s Community Design Registration but failed.

A spokesperson at Dickers said “Intermedium’s infringement and subsequent attempt to invalidate our long-standing Community Registered Design in the European Union illustrated the depth of the issues we face as an industry…”.

This case illustrates the importance of registering a design and the consequence of infringing a registered design.