UK Edition
EU judges decide against Crocs in blow for 'Marmite of shoes'
Crocs bitterly divide opinion among footwear fashionistas but European Union judges have decided against the plastic boating clogs, ruling the design cannot be protected in Europe.
Judges in Luxembourg on Wednesday threw out the US company’s appeal against a European Union Intellectual Property Office decision to cancel legal protection for the shoe's design, which was made after a legal challenge by a French company.
More than 300 million pairs of Crocs have been sold since they were debuted at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show in Florida with fans praising their hip-styling and comfort.
George Bush and Michelle Obama have donned what could be described as "the Marmite of shoes". When Prince George, then almost two-years-old, was photographed wearing navy blue Crocs in 2015, sales on Amazon soared by 1,500 percent.
But in 2010, Time Magazine named Crocs one of the world’s worst 50 inventions.
The shoes have inspired a website Ihatecrocs.com and a Facebook group called I Don't Care How Comfortable Crocs Are, You Look Like a Dumbass and international mockery in the media.
The 2002 Fort Lauderdale Boat Show launched Crocs but it also sowed the seeds of the company's defeat in the lower court of the European Court of Justice.
Because the application to protect the design was only made in 2004, judges said that it was invalid. Under EU rules a design must be new and not made public more than a year before the filing.
Crocs’ lawyers argued that EU manufacturers could not have known about the design before the application for the open-backed shoe was filed.
But the court said the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show was an international fair and the clogs had been “a smashing success”. The court said the shoes were sold widely in the US and EU manufacturers would have noticed.
It also rejected claims that EU shoemakers would not have been able to see the design on the Crocs website, where it had been published.