We all know the humble sheepskin-lined Ugg Boot are as Australian as it comes, but a group of Aussie Ugg boot makers are currently battling to overturn a trademark that is currently stopping them selling the boots abroad.
On A Current Affair on Thursday night, Western Sydney Ugg boot maker Eddie Oyger told of the ongoing legal battle which has prevented him – and other Ugg boot makers – from selling the boots abroad, causing massive losses for the Australian companies.
In 2016, American multinational company Deckers sued Oyger and his company, Australian Leather, for selling a dozen ugg boots into the US. The company had bought the naming rights to sell Ugg boots worldwide, except to Australia and New Zealand. Oyger lost his court appeal against the US footwear giant for infringing upon their trademark, but he isn’t done there.
Now, Oyger is taking one last stand against the company in America’s highest court, the US Supreme Court, to overturn the trademark and allow Australia to once again sell Uggs around the globe.
“It’s not only my fight,” Oyger told A Current Affair. “It’s for Australia. The French got champagne and the Greeks got feta recognised as generic products of their countries only to be sold there, so why not Uggs?”
According to, Oyger, a business that once saw upwards of 70 companies employing thousands of people has now been reduced to only a handful of Ugg boot makers in the country. Which, Oyger says is the reason why the years of financial and personal heartache are worth it to save the beloved Aussie-made Ugg.
“I might lose everything I have … but at least I know I have done something right,” he said.
Hundreds of people have shared their support for the boot maker, taking to Facebook to encourage him to keep fighting to keep Uggs in Australia.
“US Citizen here… And I, too, hope Australia gets the trademark. You deserve it! (I have several pairs of these marvellous boots–mine are genuine, not the fakes sold.) If the planet ever freezes, I’ll be toasty warm in my Uggs,” the woman wrote.
“I support this man 100 per cent. If we don’t watch it everything in Australia will be foreign-owned. I hope this man wins and I am fully behind him,” one commented.
While another said, “All the best Eddie. I’m on your side, take it back to Australia. Ugg belongs in Australia.”
Former politician Nick Xenophon, who is now the lawyer for Oyger agrees, describing it as a”David and Goliath battle”. “This is about what we are as a country,” he said. “This is something that belongs to Australia was created in Australia yet an American company got this trademark when they shouldn’t have.”