A lot of tread left on USA Dawgs’ legal battle

LV Valley shoe seller sues Crocs over design

The shoe is on the other foot.

Ten years on, almost as long as USA Dawgs has existed, and the Las Vegas Valley shoe seller still hashes out its war with clog giant Crocs in courts.

On July 27, USA Dawgs accused Crocs, perhaps best-known for its clogs with holes, of stealing a Z-shaped sandal design from Dawgs.

The irony of the lawsuit is that the legal dispute between the two companies started in 2006 with Crocs accusing Dawgs and other companies of selling knockoffs.

Filed in the U.S. District Court of Nevada, Dawgs’ lawsuit also accuses Crocs of using Dawgs’ password for the e-commerce website Zulily to learn about an upcoming Dawgs sale.

Crocs denies the accusations.

‘Point of no return’

The years of litigation have cost Dawgs millions of dollars, CEO Steven Mann said. He remains undeterred.

“We’re past the point of no return,“Mann said. “We have to protect our business.”

A statement from Crocs, based in Niwot, Colorado, calls the lawsuit harassment.

Crocs said it’s confident it will prevail against Dawgs. Crocs also criticized Dawgs for naming individual Croc employees as defendants in the lawsuit.

“Crocs plans on vigorously defending the frivolous allegations that have been asserted and has every intention of pursuing all avenues available to clear the names of these individuals,” the company said.

A sandal, a password

Dawgs has an office and distribution center near the intersection of Arville Street and Windmill Lane in the southern valley. The company usually has about 50 employees

CROCS

said in his letter.

A spokeswoman for the company said the letter “was not entirely unexpected,” but the company is “committed as ever to negotiating a contract in good faith.”

Flight attendants conducted an informational picket at the airline’s corporate headquarters in Summerlin in 2015.

The union and Allegiant management are at odds on pay, work rules and the length of the initial contract.

Under the Railway Labor Act, if the mediation board agrees with the union that negotiations are at a stalemate, it can proffer to both parties the prospect of accepting arbitration to resolve disputes in contract terms.

If both sides agree, the arbitration process would begin. But if either side rejects arbitration, the clock would start on a 30-day “cooling-off ” period after which flight attendants could mobilize to strike.

It’s a similar tactic taken by pilots in their contract dispute with Allegiant in April 2015.

Allegiant went to court to block a strike and U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Gordon issued an order prohibiting pilots from walking off the job.