Crocs filed for a design registration in the EU for its plastic shoe in 2004. The French company Gifi Diffusion initiated a nullity procedure against this, because the product had already been on the market for two years in the USA by then. The product was promoted through a website in 2002, was a big success at a major international boat show in Florida in 2002 and had been for sale in almost all of the United States. Consequence: it is plausible that shoe manufacturers from the EU have seen this plastic shoe before. The design rights are therefore canceled. Crocs can no longer invoke these.
