By Vivek Joshi
Rene Lacoste during the 1920s was the number one tennis player of the world. It was the time when tennis was played, wearing a full sleeve shirt and pants, which Rane Lacoste found uncomfortable. So he came up with an idea of Polo T-shirts and for the first time in the US National Championship of 1926, he played the match wearing a ‘Polo T-shirt’. It was the match in which his team captain had promised him the crocodile leather suitcase that the player admired in a store window if he won his upcoming match.
René did not win but he had the determination of the crocodile on court, which is why an American journalist gave him this nickname. And this name ‘Lacoste’ got famous in the tennis world.
After his retirement, with this brilliant idea of Polo T-shirt along with his nickname ‘Lacoste’ he decided to start his own company ‘Lacoste’ with the brand logo ‘Crocodile’. And for many years ahead this logo had become a status symbol for people who were this. Where on the one hand, Lacoste was booming simultaneously, on the other hand a brand name crocodile international was also growing at a rapid pace during 1850’s and 1960’s.
In 1961, Crocodile introduced a registered logo which was just the opposite of Lacoste and named it Crocodile. Lacoste had challenged this logo as a result of which in 2003, Crocodile had to give his trademark to Lacoste. A long running tussle between two Crocodiles has resulted in a distinctive Lacoste clothing trademark being revoked.
Singapore-based Crocodile International argued in 2008 that Lacoste hadn’t used one of its Crocodile logos for three years and should therefore have its trademark revoked. Finally, after a nine-year battle through the High Court and the Court of appeal, the Supreme Court agreed.
The registration of trademark 70068 was revoked from December 1999 and $25,000 in cost was awarded to Crocodile International. Lacoste had argued that while it didn’t use the logo in the form registered, it did use the trademark in different ways and therefore it was still using the trademark.
Even till date there is no particular solution for this, but both the companies had to compromise with each other and use the same crocodile logo with some changes in each.
