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Deckers Outdoor loses infringement lawsuit to Quince. June 15, 2026 Ugg brand owner Deckers Outdoor Corp. lost its lawsuit against Quince, with a jury deciding the design patent covering the Ultra Mini Boot is invalid. After a four-day trial in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, the jury issued a verdict in Quince's favor on Monday, finding that Quince's Australian Shearling Mini Boot infringed US Patent No. D927,161, but that the claimed design was invalid. Because the patent was invalidated, Quince avoided all liability and financial damages. The jury reached the verdict after deliberating for over two hours. A juror noted to Bloomberg that the design drawings lacked adequate reproduction detail and featured strictly functional components like seams. Quince's counsel, Xinlin Li Morrow of Morrow Ni LLP, said the verdict "vindicated Quince's mission and consumer rights." The trial was seen as among the first tackling the legality of "dupes," or popular products that are advertised as low-cost equivalents to their brand-name counterparts. Quince, which specializes in dupes, says its mission is to "create products of equal or greater quality than the leading luxury brands at a much lower price." "This case was never about an ankle boot," Quince Head of Legal Joel Dion said in a statement. "It was about whether one company can claim ownership of a common, category-wide design and use the courts to push out anyone who competes with it." Deckers, which also owns Hoka and Teva, sued Quince in 2023 over allegedly copying its design patent covering the Ugg Classic Ultra Mini boot. Quince denied the allegations and argued the patent was invalid. Deckers had previously argued that Quince also violated its trademark rights. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin dismissed Deckers' trademark-related claims last year after finding the Ugg design was too generic for trademark protection. Image courtesy Ugg

Green Century proposal charts path for Wolverine Worldwide's climate goals. Media contacts. Boston, May 13th, 2026 - Wolverine Worldwide, owner of footwear brands Merrell and Saucony, recently started disclosing its carbon emissions. Now, investors are calling on the company to take a bigger step. Shareholders voted last Thursday on a Green Century Capital Management (Green Century) proposal calling for Wolverine to adopt goals for reducing its air pollution. The proposal received 10.6% of votes cast. "Disclosing emissions is a starting but not end point," said Leslie Samuelrich, president of Green Century. " Without a reduction target, there's no guarantee that Wolverine's board or management will reduce emissions or the climate risk they face." This is the second consecutive year that Green Century has urged the footwear and apparel giant to create targets to mitigate the risks its recently reported emissions pose to the planet and company profits. The importance of taking action is rising with global warming. Climate change increased average temperatures across every U.S. county in 2025, and footwear and apparel companies are feeling the heat. The Apparel Impact Institute projects that the fashion industry is racing toward a 34% drop in profits by 2030 unless companies cut emissions. Fashioning industry progress As fashion trends speed up, the industry's climate footprint grows just as rapidly. Industry-wide emissions grew 7.5% in 2023, the first year-over-year increase since tracking began in 2019. By 2030, the sector's climate emissions are projected to rise another 55%. This projection is partly due to fast-fashion companies massively scaling their global production of clothes - and their byproduct, global-warming carbon. In response, more than 85% of leading fashion and apparel brands have announced public goals to reduce emissions, often during the production and processing of products responsible for the majority of total emissions. Wolverine's direct competitors Brooks, Crocs, Puma, and Deckers (the parent company of Hoka) are just a few of the brands with concrete written goals and plans to reduce their climate impact. Wolverine fails to lead the pack Despite Wolverine's marketing highlighting its sustainability mission of "sharing the simple power of being outside," it has yet to set a target to guide and measure its progress on preventing climate pollution. By failing to protect the nature its customers value, the company risks its reputation and appeal to the 80% of Americans who expect climate action from both the government and companies. Meanwhile, companies with climate targets are demonstrating progress and may see potential profits. Puma has reduced its supply chain emissions 22% since 2017, putting it on track to meet its 2030 target. Crocs has decreased the emissions from producing its popular Classic Clog 10% since 2021. Cutting product emissions by securing sustainable raw materials now helps companies tap into an associated 6% average increase in profit over five years. "Wolverine would serve its customers and investors well by trekking toward climate targets," said Green Century Shareholder Advocate Giovanna Eichner. "A publicly accountable goal would prove it's serious about pursuing the cost savings and emissions cuts its peers are already on the way to achieving."