4 ms·
> When Deckers, the company behind fleece-lined UGG boots, recently took Quince to court over its lookalike boots, it tried to bar Quince from referencing “dupe
by cjs_ac 3mo ago
> When Deckers, the company behind fleece-lined UGG boots, recently took Quince to court over its lookalike boots, it tried to bar Quince from referencing “dupe culture” at trial.
> The bid failed, confirming that “dupes” and “dupe culture” — a commercial ecosystem built around providing consumers cheaper alternatives to name-brand products — are cultural phenomena here to stay.
> The trial focused on whether Quince’s shearling boots that really, really look like UGGs violated the existing patent for the design. And in a twist, the jury ruled that yes, Quince had copied the UGG design — but the patent over the UGG boot should not have been issued in the first place because the design was too generic to protect. The ruling opened the door for Quince and any other brand to make a similar-looking boot, opening up a new frontier for “dupe culture.”
UGG itself is a company that operates by abusing intellectual property laws.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugg_boots_trademark_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugg_boots_trademark_dispute
- OJFord 3mo agoSeems wild to me they would be still suing to protect that patent in 2026 (or 'recently') – cheap Primark clones seemed to be the standard footwear of (female) teens & pre-teens in the 00s. (And they absolutely called them 'UGGs'.) That ship has long since sailed.
- superfrank 3mo agoFashion trends tend to be roughly on a 20 year cycle. Uggs are back in fashion with GenZ https://www.elle.com/uk/fashion/what-to-wear/a69924640/how-to-style-ugg-boots-in-2026/ https://www.elle.com/uk/fashion/what-to-wear/a69924640/how-t... https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/how-to-style-ugg-boots https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/how-to-style-ugg-boots
- RobotToaster 3mo agoCame here to say this. Deckers UGGs are cheap Chinese knockoffs of the Australian original.
- t0mpr1c3 3mo agoThey are not knockoffs. Ugg boots are a generic product. The Australian manufacturer does not have exclusive rights to the design either.
- mjmas 3mo agoA generic Australian product. But however Deckers owns Ugg as a trademark everywhere but here and NZ. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugg_boots_trademark_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugg_boots_trademark_dispute
- t0mpr1c3 3mo agoYes. In contrast to Mozzarella, Champagne, and many others which are generic products in the USA, and protected trademarks in their region of origin. I didn't realise the trademark holder is a US company.
- margalabargala 3mo agoChampagne is absolutely not a "generic" product in the US. While some California wines were and still are sold as "California Champagne", there was a court decision back in 2006 which affirmed the same protected trademark for Champagne as in the rest of the world, with the caveat that wineries already using the "Champagne" name would be grandfathered in and permitted to continue doing so. A bottle of Champagne made in the US will be labeled with its origin, and no one can start a winery and start selling Champagne in the US. That's not the same thing as "generic".
- free652 3mo agoChampagne isn't a trademark and it's *generic* in US. What happened that in 2006 US signed an agreement with EU. Obviously everything can change. https://www.ttb.gov/system/files/images/pdfs/rulings/2008-1.pdf https://www.ttb.gov/system/files/images/pdfs/rulings/2008-1....
- j1elo 3mo ago> a commercial ecosystem built around providing consumers cheaper alternatives to name-brand products This is expected IMHO, given that name brand product do nothing more than raise and raise prices, with varying list of ~excuses~ reasons such as "war here or there", "material/labor costs", "crisis", etc... But consumers' salaries are the same than before price raises of the last 7~10 years, so the new prices are unjustified (no better quality, no better products) and so people will keep expecting that a boot (or anything else) costs today the same as it cost in 2019.
- account42 3mo agoWorse, too often name brands even start lowering the quality once the brand has been established.
- aprilthird2021 3mo agoBusinesses don't just price gouge. They often expand their product lines or have R&D to come up with new products and that's more costly than just making the same shoe with the same materials for 40 years. Many consumers feel like "Why do they need to grow? Why can't they just make the product I like and I'll pay for it?" But the reality is that not growing is not protecting yourself from the future. For every product Quince dupes (and they have every right to do them and congrats on their successful business model), there is a brand with a signature product people stopped caring about, and if they hadn't spent the money to expand and try selling new products they may not have survived.
- goshcoding 3mo agoSerious question: If I wanted to buy quality "boots with the fur" (a.k.a uggs), what is a good brand these days? (Is Hacker News even the right place to be asking fashion and fashion brand questions?)
- exhumet 3mo agoim sure there are better, but i believe the "real" uggs are "UGG since 1974" not UGG brand. its very confusing lol