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NatCh Many years ago, decades and decades ago, Australia then being the land of sheep, sheep skins were sewn into boots and given the name "Ugh Boots". The term was never registered as a TM, and the expression became part of common parlance in Oz. Sheep skin boots were "Ugh boots" no matter who made them.
A US company started making them a few years back, and marketing them as "Ugh boots" they TM-ed the name, and as the term was uncommon in the US, and was not common parlance, they got it.
Now they are suing Australian "Ugh boot" manufacturers, distributors even shops that advertise their "Ugh boots". Under the free trade agreement, the whole thing happens in the US. They claim to have invented the product and the name, a laughable suggestion, but one endorsed by the US courts.
Intellectual property, or intellectual theft, there seems not a spit of difference when bad ideas are made into law.
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