According to Felix Salmon, the company that owns the trademark in most countries on “Ugg” for sheep-fleece footwear has used it in “extremely aggressive” fashion against competitors, most particularly against exports from Australia where the term is generic and small firms have produced boots and shoes under similar names for many years.
Posts Tagged ‘Australia’
Passenger sues over crying toddler on flight
Qantas settled the American passenger’s complaint, so we never got to hear the battle of the experts about whether the 3-year-old’s screaming really caused blood to issue from her eardrum as alleged. [Suzanne Murray/CafeMom via Stoll and many readers]
July 23 roundup
- “What Really Happened To Phoebe Prince?” [Emily Bazelon, Slate, related series on “cyber-bullying”; ABA Journal]
- Obama backs so-called Paycheck Fairness Act; why business should resist [USA Today, Hyman, ShopFloor, Furchtgott-Roth] Another slant on “paycheck fairness” [AP on Bell, Calif., sequel]
- Unlinked back in February: “Doctors cut back hours when risk of malpractice suit rises, study shows” [Eric Helland and Mark Showalter, JLE, Brigham Young release via Bob Dorigo Jones]
- Also unlinked from back when: thanks for kind mention to Mark Herrmann in “Memoirs of a Blogger,” PDF [Litigation mag courtesy WSJ Law Blog, Drug and Device Law]
- Ditto: Nora Freeman Engstrom on accident-law settlement mills, “Run-of-the-Mill Justice” [Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, SSRN, via LEF, Ronald Miller]
- Australia: “Welfare cheat wins right to IVF on jail time” [Melbourne Age]
- “The Nightmare of Legal Discovery” [Lammi, WLF Legal Pulse, related from WLF]
- Tribunal: “Mosquito” teenager-repellent device violates European Convention on Human Rights [Ku, Opinio Juris]
“Teacher claims A$400,000 damages from injuries to larynx from yelling at students”
Australia: “A Bundaberg school teacher who claims she damaged her larynx yelling at children, including some with special needs, is suing the State Government for more than $400,000.” [Queensland Sunday Mail]
Followers sue religious group after doomsday fails to occur as promised
Two former members of an Australian church “want their money back, claiming they handed over more than A$400,000 and A$1 million respectively to the church based on lies about a doomsday scenario.” [ABC.net.au]
July 11 roundup
- Update: Australian judge tells Men at Work to pay 5% of royalties to “Kookaburra” owner, far less than was demanded [Lowering the Bar, earlier here and here]
- McDonald’s CEO pushes back vs. ogrish CSPI’s anti-Happy Meal campaign [Stoll, Mangu-Ward] “Milk, Coke and the Calorie Police” [Jason Kuznicki, Cato]
- “Lawyer sues basketball star LeBron James, alleging he is his father” [CNN, BLT] Update: judge tosses suit.
- Small business tort liability costs estimated at $133 billion [NERA study (PDF) for Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform (press release) via PoL]
- Crawlers, robots.txt and fear of litigation: “Some closure on my collision with Facebook” [Pete Warden]
- Now what was Citizens United supposed to open the floodgates for, exactly? [Bainbridge]
- DOJ “entered into undisclosed agreement with Amex to freeze out the employment of exec who ultimately was cleared of wrongdoing” [Podgor, Kirkendall via Steele]
- Easter egg in financial regulation bill could result in new pressure for gender, ethnic quotas across wide sectors of economy [Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Real Clear Politics; Mark Perry with some figures on the degree of gender balance in Dodd’s and Frank’s committees]
Oz: “Letter bomber Colin Dunstan wins compensation”
Australia: “A man who held the nation to ransom with a letter-bomb campaign has won compensation linked to the failed workplace love affair that sparked the terror reign.” [Herald-Sun] In other Antipodean workplace news, a man currently jailed on child porn charges has won an unfair dismissal case against his former employer, food company Nestle, notwithstanding “allegations that he had routinely harassed women in the workplace, and even attempted sabotage” by placing a sexual drawing into a box of the company’s products. [Herald-Sun]
Australia: “Jailed mum’s rights ‘denied'”
“A jailed 45-year-old welfare cheat who wants another child claims her human rights have been breached because she has been refused access to fertility treatment. … The case is being run by six barristers and six solicitors with much of the legal bill being picked up by taxpayers.” [Melbourne Herald-Sun]
Liability issues doom spectacular Australia treehouse
BoingBoing has the details. From a commenter: “shouldn’t these kids be playing violent video games or something?”
“Do not attempt to install if drunk, pregnant or both. Do not eat antenna.”
Funny warnings from Antenna Direct of Missouri [Consumerist] And Australian prawns (shrimp) are sold with a reassurance that the accompanying promotional material is “not implicitly or explicitly directed at minors, excluded persons, or vulnerable or disadvantaged groups.” [Hey, What Did I Miss? (Institute for Public Affairs)]