DECK awarded a huge legal victory for which it will probably never see a penny. But the implications for the brand are positive given current sentiment.
The good news is that Deckers won two lawsuits in the Northern District of Illinois totaling $686 million to the company. The bad news is that it is against 3,007 China-based web sites selling fake Uggs. Even if the defendants were US companies, this would be held up in appeals for years. But the fact that they are Chinese? Let's not hold our breath.
But on the plus side, DECK was granted a permanent injunction, which will help its counterfeit policing activities, and will also be given any cash that has been seized from 'hundreds of financial accounts' linked to the counterfeiting, including funds held by PayPal.
Perhaps most important is that this hardly helps the short case about the brand losing relevance. We've yet to see such severe penalties surrounding brands that no longer matter. DECK Is one of our favorites post the 1Q sell-off.
