Boot buyer walks into copyright row

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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