Top Biz News

French firm launches logo lawsuits

By Liu Chang (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-08-01 09:01

As for the lawsuit against the trademark appraisal committee of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, no court decision has yet been made.

Last May, the committee reaffirmed the Singaporean Cartelo's trademark registration of its character and crocodile logo. The committee held that the trademark of Cartelo was obviously different from that of Lacoste.

Lacoste rejected the decision and sued the committee at the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court.

The French company believed that as it registered its crocodile logo in 1983 and the logo applied later by Cartelo was similar to that of Lacoste, the committee should not authorize registration of the Singaporean trademark.

There have been four different garment products with a crocodile logo. They were Lacoste, Cartelo, and two based in Hong Kong and Zhejiang.

In 2003, with the Beijing High People's Court presiding, the Hong Kong-based company reached an agreement with Lacoste, promising to stop using the similar trademark by 2006.

The Zhejiang-based company also made a similar promise last year, but the deadline was unknown.

Lacoste and Cartelo made an agreement on the trademark used in Singapore, Taiwan of China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

Lacoste accepted Cartelo's registered trademark in the countries and regions, and offered US$1 million for permission to sell Lacoste there.