Crocs cannot protect its namesake clog design in the European Union. This is what the General Court of the European Union stated in a ruling on March 14. The EU court said that other shoemakers had seen the design of Crocs' clogs long before the company filed for registration, specifically through its website, at an international trade show in Florida, and through sales in various U.S. states. The case came before the EU court in 2013, when Gifi Diffusion, a French retailer, argued that the Crocs design should not be protected because it had already been sold for more than two years prior to its registration. Gifi's claim was supported by the EU's intellectual property office (EUIPO) in 2016, but Crocs appealed the pronouncement, and EUIPO's decision has now been upheld. Crocs originally registered the design in the EU in 2005. In order to be eligible for protection, a design must be registered within a set period – generally 12 months - from it first being marketed. Crocs now has two months to decide whether or not to appeal the ruling at the European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court.

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