Hi all, I have searched hundreds of websites about marketing ugg boots on an affiliate website. So i hope someone here can shed some light on the situation to help me out as i have not had much luck. I want to set up an affilliate site promoting ugg boots in the UK from a website that is currently selling its products in Australia and using an affilliate network. The site is www.australianuggboots.com.au/uk/ So what i want to do is market these products on my website on a domain for example www.genuineuggboots.co.uk. I will then review the ugg boot products and direct visitors to www.australianuggboots.com.au/uk/ so that they can buy online. The products are 100% genuine. However, the text on my website contains the words uggs, and boots and "ugg boots" both together. So the bottom line is, can i do it and can i use these words on my website to target the search engines without infringing copyright? There are so many complaints and law suit postings on google about ugg being a trademarked name etc but i can not find much about this linking to affiliate websites, just actual online stores selling uggs and in some cases fake products. Thanks in advance for any help regarding this.
Wouldn't it be easier to clarify this from the network? ( Clixgalore I presume?) There is a thread at A4u regarding UGG protecting their trademark- http://www.affiliates4u.com/forums/affiliate-marketing-lounge/134862-affiliate-sites-law.html , but it does not specifically answer your question about using the words on your site to get traffic from the search engines. I think you might also need permission to use UGG in your domain name.
You can't use "ugg" in the domain without express permission from the company - otherwise it is trademark infringement - which opens the door to being sued and/or having the domain taken from you. Having the word "ugg" on your sites text is not infringement as long as you are not trying to pass yourself off as the company or authorized agent. You need to check with the affiliate program for any other terms to be in compliance.
Yes i am currently checking with the network itself so thanks for that, and thanks mjewel for the information that's a great help, i had it in my mind that i needed a new domain so i'll get this updated and 301'd, not too much of a blow