Lacoste settles long-time China Crocodile spat

After that, Crocodile Garments, whose sporty shirts are barely distinguishable from Lacoste’s barring price, would sell only products bearing a refashioned reptile with a markedly curly tail.

Its new logo, only for use in Mainland China, would also becircled. ‘‘We reached an agreement in a Beijing court today,’’ Crocodile Garments executive director Matthew Lam told a news conference in Beijing. ‘‘Lacoste will drop the infringement action against us’’.

Paul Ranjard, the Beijing-based lawyer representing Lacoste, confirmed the settlement. Lacoste has had a stormy relationship with the Hong Kong firm since it began selling its products in the former British colony, where Crocodile had already registered a similar logo. In 1980, Lacoste enlisted Crocodile as the sole distributor of its products in Hong Kong, enabling the Hong Kong firm to sell its left-facing crocodile wares and Lacoste’s right-facing ones in different shops.

Keen on the potential of the then-nascent Mainland China market, Lacoste registered its crocodile trademark there in 1980. But the relationship soured several years later when Crocodile, also eager to tap the world’s largest potential consumer market, filed trademark applications in Mainland China, a move Lacoste argued violated their 1980 agreement, Ranjard said.

In 1998, Lacoste sued Crocodile in Hong Kong for making the trademark applications in China, and also filed suit in Beijing for trademark infringement.

Lacoste won the Hong Kong suit in 1999, but the Beijing case dragged on.

The new settlement appears to put the relationship on the mend. It will allow Crocodile to continue selling clothes with its left-facing crocodile in Hong Kong while also distributing Lacoste’s brand. Both firms hope the settlement will also help kill off a plethora of other confusing crocodile logos crowding mainland garment markets.

‘‘The piracy developed mainly in China because there was still no decision on this leading case,’’ Ranjard said. ‘‘Now that the leading case has been solved, we will most probably obtain the full support of China’s administration and the courts to attack everybody else.’’ (Reuters)