Lacoste wins dispute

French sports and clothing retailer, Lacoste, has won a trademark suit against a Chinese department store. Lacoste described the victory as a “stage win in the battle against counterfeiting”.

Department store Changsha Parkson was ordered by a court to stop selling products from Crocodile International, a Chinese leather goods manufacturer. The products feature a crocodile which is almost identical to the Lacoste crocodile. The department store was ordered to pay Lacoste CNY 5,000 (GBP474) in damages.

According to a spokesperson for Lacoste, this decision is important because China has finally decided to enforce its laws. Lacoste lost an earlier dispute with Crocodile International in Singapore, with the latter claiming to have registered the logo in China before Lacoste did. However, Lacoste said it had registered its trademark in China in 1980.

The company settled another long-standing dispute with the Hong-Kong based garment company Crocodile Garments, which agreed to alter its crocodile logo sufficiently so as to not resemble the Lacoste logo.

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