Australians are fuming at an attempt by an American company to monopolise the name ugg boot, the ungainly sheepskin footwear made fashionable by celebrities Pamela Anderson and Sandra Bullock.
United States footwear company Deckers, which bought an Australian shoe-making firm and registered the name ugg boot, has forced one Australian company off internet auction site eBay and threatened to sue others using the term, according to Australia's Daily Telegraph. The boots, which are typically worn over jeans, are made in Australia by a number of small, family run firms which argue that ugg boot is as generic a term as trainer or sand shoe.
Their origins go back to the first world war, when Australian fighter pilots wore thick sheepskin boots known as fug boots.
The boots again became popular in the 1970s and were renamed ugg boots because they were considered unashamedly ugly.
Andrew Stoner, the leader of the Nationals party in New South Wales, said the chunky, insulated boots were an Australian icon.
'Ugg boots are as Australian as the kangaroo, yet we now have this bunch of corporate lawyers throwing their weight around with small manufacturers. Threatening to sue people who have manufactured footwear under the generic label of ugg boots for decades is a joke,' Mr Stoner said.
