UGG manufacturer awarded $5m in design patent case
A jury has awarded the manufacturer of UGG footwear, Deckers Outdoor, over $5 million in a design patent infringement case.
Deckers filed its complaint at the US District Court for the Central District of California on April 16, 2015 against California footwear company Romeo & Juliette, individual Thomas Romeo, and unknown defendants.
The plaintiff alleged that the unknown defendants were aware of the infringing activity and the damage that it caused to Deckers.
Deckers said that its UGG shoes first became popular in the US in 2000, with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey featuring the footwear in a segment. Since then, the popularity of the boots has increased, with a series of celebrities owning pairs.
“UGG sheepskin boots have become a high fashion luxury item and can be found on fashion runways around the world,” said the claim.
The shoes are available through authorised retailers throughout the US and on the internet.
Romeo & Juliette allegedly manufactured, designed, advertised and sold footwear under the brand names BearPaw and Attix.
Deckers’ design patents involved in the dispute are “Portion of a footwear upper” (US patent numbers D599,999; D616,189; and D582,650), and “Footwear upper” (D642,781), although only the ‘189 and ‘999 design patents were ruled on.
The UGG boots that feature the design patents are the “Bailey Button” (‘599), “Bailey Button Triplet” (‘189), “Cardy” (‘650) and “Maylin” (‘781).
Deckers said that it did not grant the defendants a licence or permission to use the design patents or any other IP that it owned.
In May 2016, a motion to dismiss the infringement claim on the ‘781 design patent was granted.
On April 6 this year, a jury ruled in favour of Deckers on two of the other design patent infringement claims.
The jury decided that the defendants were liable for wilful infringement of the ‘189 design patent, therefore awarding Deckers a total sum of $3,104,237 for the claim.
It also found that the defendants wilfully infringed the ‘999 design patent. Deckers was awarded $2,146,601 for the infringement.
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