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A STUDYGUIDE by Robert Lewis
www.metromagazine.com.au
www.theeducationshop.com.au
Synopsis
The Good, The Bad and The Ugg Boot (Susan Lambert, 2006) is a
54-minute documentary that follows the efforts of some businesses
in Australia and America as they fight a US shoe company over
control of a trademarked name, the ugg boot.
For over 100 years the ugg boot has been an Australian product
– from sheep shearer, to surfie, to under the bed, ugg boots have
been part of Australian culture. Now the ‘ugg’ trademark is owned
by a United States corporation: Deckers Outdoor Corporation have
called their new brand of ugg boots ‘UggAustralia.’
With the ugg’s fortunes changing as a result of its new fashion
status, thanks to Pamela Anderson, Hollywood stars and Oprah
Winfrey, this corporation is calling on Australian manufacturers and
their distributors not to use the word ‘ugg’ to market their boots.
The story begins at Christmas 2003 when ugg boot manufacturers
worldwide receive a letter from Deckers demanding that they cease
using the word ugg, ug or ugh, or be sued. Enter the McDougalls,
who have been making and selling ugg boots through their family
business for twenty-seven years. The McDougalls decide to fight.
They counter-sue Deckers, saying that ugg is a generic term and
should never have been trademarked in the first place. At the same
time another business in the US is being sued by Deckers for calling
their boots uggs. The Severns have been selling Australian sheep
skin boots in the US for forty years. They also decide to counter-sue
Deckers, saying it is not a legitimate American trademark.
Following the dramatic twists and turns of both these cases The
Good, The Bad and The Ugg Boot uncovers the strange history of
the ugg boot and how it became a global fashion sensation.
SCREEN EDUCATION
Room for a caption if needed
Before
watching
the Film
The film is about a word, ‘ugg’. Why
might people make a fuss about one
word?
Room for a caption if needed
key search terms – without using
the word ‘ugg’. For example, you
might do a search for ‘sheepskin
boots’. Compare your results. If
you were a manufacturer would
you want to use the word ‘ugg’ to
describe your product? Explain
your reasons.
6 Why might the word ‘ugg’ be a
powerful one for someone to control?
SCREEN EDUCATION
1 Bring an ugg boot or a picture of
one to school. Survey your friends,
asking them what it is called.
Record the answers. Do the same
for people of other generations in
other places. How many recognize
the footwear as an ‘ugg boot’?
2 Imagine that you are the manufacturer and marketer of an ugg boot.
How would you describe your
product to a person who had never
heard of it?
3 What alternative name/s could you
use to describe it?
4 Do a Google search for ugg boots.
Record the first page of results
showing the top 15 or so in the list.
5 Now use a variety of alternative
Exploring
issues and
ideas in the Film
Room for a caption if needed
• Brian Smith exports boots to
the USA
• Deckers markets the boots
through a ‘seeding’ strategy
• Deckers sends legal letters
telling Australian supplier to
stop calling them Ugg boots in
descriptions used in advertising (such as would be found by
a Google search).
• Macquarie Dictionary includes
Ugg as being a generic description of sheepskin boots
• March hearing in Los Angeles
finds that Deckers has control
of the word Ugg
• November hearing in Australia
finds that Ugh is a generic word,
and cannot be monopolized or
trademarked in Australia.
• Pamela Anderson is photographed wearing them, and
suddenly many celebrities are
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
wearing them. Deckers’ sales
soar.
RAF pilots are using them.
Called Fug boots
Shane Stedman trademarks
the word UGH in Australia
Sheepskin boots being used in
New Zealand by shearers
Smith registers UGG boots as
a trademark in America, saying
there is no significant use of
the word in the industry.
Smith sells to Deckers Outdoor
The boots are popular with
surfers in Australia
Deckers cannot maintain stock
from Australian suppliers, and
start importing from China. At
the same time many boots are
being sold in America through
eBay.
SCREEN EDUCATION
1 Identify who these people/organizations are in the story.
• Deckers Outdoor Corporation /
UggAustralia
• Shane Stedman
• Brian Smith
• The McDougall family (WA)
• The Severns (LA)
• David Stewart
• Robert Brody Hall
• Federal Court (USA)
• Registrar of Trademarks (Australia)
2 The film is about an American firm
claiming ownership of a word that
it does not have the right to. Here
are some events associated with
the ugg boot. Many of them are
mentioned in the film. Organize
them into a timeline of developments of the ugg boot. (You can
check against the timeline at the
end of this study guide)
Curriculum applicability
The Good, the Bad and the Ugg Boot is a classroom resource
for middle and senior students in:
• Australian Studies: what are national icons?
• Media Studies: how does a film create its style or
‘tone’?
•
•
•
•
English: the language of advertising and persuasion
Business Studies: the impact of the internet on
marketing
Economics: the nature of globalization and its impacts
Legal Studies: competing rights, intellectual property
ExplorinG
1 Quality
2 USA system
3 Australian system
Fair
Impartial
Chart 1
The film is about the commercial
control of words — trademarks. A
trademark can be a word, phrase,
letter, number, sound, smell, shape,
logo, picture, aspect of packaging or
a combination of these. It is used to
distinguish the goods and services of
one trader from those of another. A
registered trademark gives you the legal right to use, license or sell it within
Australia for the goods and services
for which it is registered. http://www.
ipaustralia.gov.au/trademarks/what_index.shtml
for it to apply in that country.
5 Why would this rule apply? Is it a
good rule in your opinion? Why?
6 How might the development of the
internet have subverted this rule?
3 Why would a company want to
have an exclusive trademark?
What commercial advantage might
it give?
4 Give some examples of wellknown trademarks that would help
a company’s sales.
A trademark is country specific — it
has to be registered in each country
7 List some other words that could
not be trademarked in this way.
8 Some trademarked words become
interchangeable with the product.
For example, many people refer
to a ‘biro’, meaning a ball-point
pen, without realising that it is a
particular make of ball-point pen,
and is trademarked. See if you
Some words are generic descriptions of a product, and cannot be
trademarked for specific use by one
company. For example, no company
could trademark the word ‘Pasta’ for
their pasta. Pasta is a generic word
that applies to the food that we know
as pasta.
can list some other examples of
trademark names that have come
to be regarded as generic names
for a particular product.
A trademark also protects names that
sound the same as the trademarked
name.
9 Do you think these words would be
covered by the trademark ‘Ugg’:
Ugh, Ug?
10 Try to create:
• More words that sound like but
have a different spelling to Ugg
• Words that are similar but do
not sound like Ugg, and which
someone might use to ‘ambush’
the trademarked word/s. For
example, you might think that
an ‘Erg’ boot might avoid the
trademark problem, but still be
sufficient to identify your boot as
being similar to an Ugg boot.
Room for a caption if needed Room for a caption if needed Room for a caption if needed Room for a caption if needed
SCREEN EDUCATION
Room for a caption if needed
• Law
• Rights
• Justice
• Decision
• Solution
15 A sub-text in the film is that we
should buy ‘Australian Made’ products. Do you agree? Why?
16 Deckers calls its boots ‘UggAustralia’. Go to its website http://
www.uggaustralia.com and look
at the way it describes its boots.
Its critics say that the boots are
actually made in China. If so, is
Deckers’ name and description of
its boots misleading? Discuss this
idea.
17 There are at least four types of
rights involved in this situation:
• Individual
• Corporate
• National
• Trans-national
Explain each of these terms.
18 What balance is Deckers trying to
impose between them?
19 What balance are the local manufacturers trying to impose?
20 Where do the rights of local
workers fit?
21 Where do those of foreign workers?
22 Which do you think is the correct
balance? Explain your reasons.
The film provides some insight into the
world of globalization. Globalization
involves the development of extensive worldwide patterns of economic
relationships between nations, which
includes increased international trade,
growth of international investment and
international migration, and increased
creation of technology among countries. Globalization is the increasing
world-wide integration of markets for
goods, services, labour and capital.
This economic activity can also have
an impact on cultural, political and
social systems across geographical
boundaries.
Globalization therefore involves:
• Global markets
• Changes to manufacturing systems
• Use of Third World labour supplies
• Dominance of corporations over
small local firms
• International rather than national
operations
SCREEN EDUCATION
These issues about words will
appear again as you discuss the
issues in the film.
11 The film is about a dispute. Briefly
outline:
• The argument to support Deckers’ claim to the word
• The argument to support the
Australian claim to the word as
a generic term that no single
company has the right to claim
for their own exclusive use.
12 The film is also about the process
that exists to settle disputes. What
do you expect from a dispute settlement process? List the qualities.
For example, you might expect it
to be fair and impartial. Add any
more features to this list in column
1 in Chart 1.
13 Look at the way the United States
and Australian systems are presented in the film. Does each show
these qualities or characteristics?
Make brief notes in columns 2
and 3 to summarize your findings
about how each system does or
does not fulfil each of your criteria.
14 Using this case as an example,
distinguish between these words in
a legal context:
ideas
Room for a caption if
needed
• Transnational marketing
• The weakening of elements of local
culture
23 Give an example of each of these
elements or characteristics in the
film.
24 Globalization involves winners and
losers. Who are the potential winners in this situation? Who are the
potential losers?
25 Which are you in this situation, a
winner or a loser? Give reasons for
your decision.
One of the engines of change in globalization is the internet.
31 Discuss the likely impact of these
changes on an audience’s expectations of the film.
32 Which do you think is the better
version? Why?
The Good, The Bad and The Ugg Boot
is a spaghetti western following the funny, brave and tragic efforts of a bunch
of feisty small family businesses, in
Australia and America, as they take on
a giant US shoe company, over a weird
Aussie cultural icon – the ugg boot.
For over 100 years the ugg boot has
been an Australian icon – from sheep
shearer, to surfie, to under the bed, ugg
boots have been part of the Aussie cul-
ture. Now, through a bizarre comedy of
errors, the ‘ugg’ trademark is owned by
an aggressive US corporation: Deckers
Outdoor Corporation have called their
new brand of ugg boots ‘Ugg Australia’.
With the ugg’s fortunes changing as a
result of its new fashion status, thanks
to Pamela Anderson, Hollywood stars
and Oprah Winfrey, this corporation is
threatening the small family boot makers
in Australia, and their distributors around
the world, with legal action if they use
the word ugg to market their boots.
The story begins at Christmas 2003
when Ugg boot manufacturers worldwide receive a letter from Deckers
demanding that they cease using the
word ugg, ug or ugh, or be sued.
Enter the McDougalls: Bruce, Bronwyn,
and their daughter Fiona who have been
making and selling ugg boots through
their family business for twenty-seven
years. Rather than give in to Deckers
and lose the right to keep their name,
Uggs-‘N-Rugs, and their internet business, the McDougalls decide to fight.
They counter-sue Deckers, saying that
Ugg is a generic term and should never
SCREEN EDUCATION
26 What is the role of the internet in
this case?
27 We do not hear the case of Deckers in the film. Is this fair?
28 Deckers chose not to be involved
in the film. Does this change your
answer to the previous question?
29 Do you think the film is a fair and
balanced presentation of the case
and the issues associated with it?
30 Does it have to be, or is it okay for a
film to present a pre-determined view
to its audience? Explain your ideas.
Language is an important element in
the film – the way people and issues
are described can influence our reactions to them. The Synopsis at the
start of this Study Guide is not in the
exact form in which it was provided
by the filmmaker. Look at the version
below, which is the one originally supplied for use, and compare it to the
one actually used at the start of the
Guide. The sections underlined are the
ones that have been changed.
Room for a caption if
needed
have been trademarked in the first
place. But they have to prove it. Bruce
sets out to gather the evidence.
At the same time another small family
business in the US are being sued by
Deckers for calling their boots uggs. The
Severns, Percy, Cliff and Cliffie, have
been selling Australian sheep skin boots
in the US for forty years. They also
decide to counter-sue Deckers, saying it
is not a legitimate American trademark.
If they lose, their Australian supplier will
have to put off workers or close.
Following the dramatic twists and turns
of both these cases The Good, The Bad
and The Ugg Boot uncovers the strange
history of the ugg boot and how it
became a global fashion sensation. But
it is the build-up to the legal showdowns
that keep the story on an emotional
rollercoaster right up to the surprising
conclusion.
33 One of the requirements in publi-
cizing a film is to provide a maximum of 100 words to describe it
in a way that will grab people’s
attention, give them a good idea of
what the film is about, and make
them interested in seeing it. Write a
publicity release for this film, using
a maximum of 100 words.
34 Compare it to these ones provided
by the filmmaker, and discuss.
• What are the strengths and
weaknesses of each?
• How are they different?
• Which is more appropriate?
• Do they suit different audiences?
Example 1
The Good, The Bad and The Ugg Boot
In 2003 Australians woke up to find that
the ‘ugg’ trademark was owned by a
US corporation that was threatening
ugg boot makers with legal action if they
SCREEN EDUCATION
A spaghetti western following a heroic
bunch of small family businesses, as
they take on a giant US shoe company,
over a weird Aussie cultural icon – the
ugg boot.
Room for a caption
if needed
in the
fILM
Date
Event
Pre-1900
Sheepskin boots being used in New Zealand by shearers
1918
RAF pilots are using them. Called Fug boots
1960s
The boots are popular with surfers in Australia
1971
Shane Stedman trademarks the word UGH in Australia
1979
Brian Smith exports boots to the USA
1981
Macquarie Dictionary includes Ugg as being a generic description of sheepskin boots
1986
Smith registers UGG boots as a trademark in America, saying there is no significant use of the word in the industry
1995
Smith sells to Deckers Outdoor
2000s
Deckers markets the boots through a ‘seeding’ strategy
2003
Pamela Anderson is photographed wearing them, and suddenly many celebrities are wearing them. Deckers’ sales soar
They cannot maintain stock from Australian suppliers, and start importing from China. At the same time, many boots
are being sold in America through eBay
Deckers sends legal letters telling Australian supplier to stop calling them Ugg boots in descriptions in advertising
(such as would be found by a Google search)
2005
March hearing in Los Angeles finds that Deckers has control of the word Ugg
November hearing in Australia finds that Ugh is a generic word, and cannot be monopolised or trademarked in Australia
used the word ‘ugg’ to describe their
boots.
But one small family of boot makers in
Australia, and their counterpart in the
US, decide not to take this lying down.
The film follows the drama of the legal
battles as they fight to reclaim the word.
Example 2
The Good, The Bad and The Ugg Boot
A spaghetti western following the funny,
brave and tragic efforts of a bunch of
feisty small family businesses, in Australia and America, as they fight a giant US
corporation over who owns the weird
Aussie cultural icon – the ugg boot.
Along the way we see how trademarking has become a lethal legal weapon in
the global market place.
35 How does Lambert achieve these
elements? Consider each of the
following and decide how they
help to create these styles:
• The characters
• The way the people are
interviewed and seen in their
relationship to each other
• Music
• Narrator
• Language used
• Editing – what’s shown, what’s
not
• The use of emotive terms and
phrases.
36 Here is a statement from Lambert
explaining more about what she
was trying to achieve:
The Good, The Bad and The Ugg Boot
Filmmaker’s personal statement:
Making The Good, The Bad and The
Ugg Boot was an amazing rollercoaster
ride. From the moment I had the idea
– over two years ago after hearing
a listener ring up the radio and announce that the word ugg was owned
by an American corporation – until the
landmark decision early this year, it was
like riding a bucking bronco. Every time
I thought I had a sense of what was going to happen it all changed. I had to remain flexible and alert to all possibilities
and hold on to the story for dear life.
My original vision for the film was a reallife version of the feature film The Castle
and when I met the main characters
of the film I knew it was possible. But
before finding the McDougalls and the
Severns there were many hours of legwork researching the issue and talking
to other possible players. I filmed some
of these people but their stories didn’t
have the resonance I was looking for.
I was always asking the question:
could little people go up against a giant
corporation and win? Of course when
the Severns lost their case in America
I thought this film was going to be very
SCREEN EDUCATION
The film’s main creator, Susan Lambert,
says that her ‘original vision for the film
was a real -ife version of the feature film
The Castle. Three characteristics of her
film are:
• it is a ‘David and Goliath’ story
• it is ‘tongue-in-cheek’
• the title is drawn from the ‘spaghetti
western’, The Good, the Bad and the
Ugly.
depressing and the answer to the question would be no. But I never underestimated the McDougalls and following
their struggle was a real privilege.
Originally I had assumed that I would be
able to film the other side of the story
– Deckers Outdoor Corporation – but
after months of approaching them and
being rebuffed by their lawyers, I gave
up and have only been able to include
their public face. At first this was a terrible blow, but the film clearly articulates the priorities of a huge publicly
listed company and the loss of a more
personal relationship doesn’t weaken
the film.
I think I was drawn to the story because
my parents had a small hardware business and I am familiar with the hard
work of the little family businesses. I
was also drawn to the story because it
involved the buying and selling of a cultural icon. All the time I knew the dispute
was not about a boot but a birthright.
The film is a microcosm of globalization
played out in our own backyard.
When I look at a lot of my other films
this film seems to be a culmination and
continuation of a recurring theme of the
relationship between money and power
whether on the home front (Under The
Hammer, 1997); in business (Risky Business, 1999); sex (Tokyo Bound: Bondage
Mistresses of Japan, 2000); justice (DIY
Law, 2002); love (Love and Money, 2004)
or war (Deadly Enemies, 2005).
So as to produce an international film
on a domestic budget, I have had to pull
in many favours and have to thank the
fact that we have a strong documentary community here in Australia that
enabled me to make it.
37 Why do you think that such a story
would appeal to a filmmaker?
38 Is the style appropriate? Suggest
alternative approaches.
39 Is it necessary to be fair and balanced? Does the film deal fairly
with Deckers?
40 Do you think it is a good film?
Explain your reasons.
The McDougalls call on their
website http://www.uggs-nrugs.com.au for people to join a
campaign to save the Aussie Ugg
Boot. Would you? Explain your
reasons.
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