Interface News Reporter | Alice Chu
Interface News Editor | Xu Yue
Frequent mall visitors will be familiar with the Cartelo – the open-mouthed crocodile's trademark, which sells business casual wear and can easily be confused with the French crocodile Lacoste. Cartelo is a brand owned by the well-known company Antarctic E-commerce.
According to the official news of the French crocodile Lacoste, Lacoste won the trademark infringement case against Cartelo.
Lacoste stated that on January 26, 2024, it had received the final judgment of the Beijing Higher People's Court on the trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Lacoste/Lacoste against Antarctic E-commerce Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Antarctic E-commerce") and its affiliates.
According to Lacoste, the Beijing High People's Court found in the (2022) Jing Min Zhong No. 293 Civil Judgment that the plaintiff Lacoste's crocodile graphic trademark (head to right crocodile, see picture below) had reached well-known status in China as early as 2006. However, the defendant Antarctic E-commerce and its affiliates used the crocodile trademark (crocodile with its head facing left, see the figure below) on its clothing, bags and other products under the Cadile brand, which obviously had the intention of clinging to the reputation of Lacoste and was likely to cause confusion among the relevant public, thus infringing the legitimate rights and interests of the trademark held by the Lacoste brand/Lacoste.
The court ordered the defendant to cease the infringement and pay compensation of about 14.8 million yuan to the Lacoste brand/Lacoste company. The judgment is a final judgment of the second instance and has now taken effect.
Jiemian News found that the (2022) Jing Min Zhong No. 293 Civil Judgment has not been published online in China Judgment Documents. Tianyancha shows that Antarctic E-commerce and its two affiliated companies were executed for 15.05 million yuan on March 13, 2024, and the related case is a trademark infringement dispute filed by Lacoste Co., Ltd. (the subject of Lacoste's lawsuit).
Jiemian News contacted Antarctic E-commerce for a response, and the secretary of the board of directors of Antarctic E-commerce said that at this stage, the company is still negotiating with brand licensing customers and Lacoste on this matter, and it is inconvenient to respond for the time being.
At present, the above-mentioned apparel, bags and other products convicted of infringement have not been removed from the shelves in the flagship store of Cadile Crocodile Tmall.
There are three crocodiles in the Chinese market that make consumers "stupid and confused": the French crocodile Lacoste, the Cartelo and the crocodile, and the three have a lot of connections.
Founded in 1933, Lacoste is a French mid-to-high-end brand with polo shirts as a classic item, and entered the Chinese market in the 1980s.
Founded in 1947 by Singapore Crocodile International (Pvt) Ltd., Catilla Crocodile entered the Chinese mainland market in 1993. In 2016, the latter acquired a 95% stake in the Cadilla Crocodile brand and related trademark owner CCPL Pte Ltd (CCPL) for nearly 600 million yuan through its subsidiary, and has now increased its stake to 100%.
Crocodile shirt was founded in 1952, but its trademark was originally registered in Hong Kong by a German company in the early 20th century, and in the 1950s, after the end of World War II, Chinese businessman Chen Jun bought the trademark and registered Crocodile Shirt Co., Ltd., which was listed in Hong Kong in 1971. The main market for crocodile shirts has always been in Hong Kong, but also in Macau and Chinese mainland. From 1980 to 2021, Crocodile Shirts was also the exclusive agent of Lacoste in Hong Kong and Macau.
In fact, the trademark dispute between the three brands has been going on for years.
As early as 1983, Lacoste and Cadile Crocodile signed a settlement agreement, agreeing to cooperate and coexist in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, and Lacoste was willing to pay Cadile Crocodile the compensation for the protection and defense costs of the crocodile trademark in the past.
But because the settlement agreement did not involve Chinese mainland, the dispute continued beyond 2010.
Jiemian News searched "Lacoste Co., Ltd." on the online website of China's judgments and found that from 2012 to 2018, there was an administrative dispute over a trademark dispute between Lacoste and Cadile Crocodile and Crocodile Shirt for many years, and the disputed trademark involved was the international registration trademark No. 638122 applied for by Lacoste. The final judgment of the case held that the trademark and the "CARTELO and figure" trademark of Cadilla Crocodile did not constitute a similar trademark. To put it simply, Lacoste is the winner in this dispute.
From the perspective of business scale, the revenue of crocodile shirts has shrunk to around 100 million Hong Kong dollars in recent years. According to the latest financial report of its parent company, as of the end of January 2024, Crocodile Shirt only has 13 stores in Hong Kong, Macau and Chinese mainland, of which only 4 are in Chinese mainland.
As an international brand, Lacoste has a wider influence and channels, and has 1,100 offline stores in 98 countries around the world. Lacoste has also deployed offline channels in many cities in the Chinese mainland market, with 72 stores in four cities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen alone, and almost all of them are located in shopping malls, which is in line with its high-end positioning.
Although Cadile Crocodile is a licensed operation, it is far inferior to Lacoste in terms of brand image, positioning and product quality control, but its offline sales network cannot be ignored. According to the official website of Antarctic e-commerce, in 2016, Cadile crocodile had thousands of stores of various types across the country.
On social media, many consumers said that they had mistaken the Cartille crocodile for Lacoste, and tended to think of the Cartille crocodile as a "knockoff" of Lacoste. From this point of view, there is no real beneficiary in the trademark dispute between Lacoste and Cadilla Crocodile, which has lasted for many years.
Similarly, there is a dispute between Ralph Lauren's Polo Ralph Lauren and the fake Polo. Polo Ralph Lauren was operated by agents in the early days of the mainland. It was not until 2011 that Ralph Lauren completely regained its agency rights in China and fully converted to a direct operation. But at this time, "copycats" have been overwhelming, such as a number of "POLO" related trademarks of Guangzhou Aiways Leather Co., Ltd. The related lawsuit progressed in 2021, when the trial court invalidated a number of "POLO"-related trademarks of Guangzhou Aiways Leather Co., Ltd. In 2022, the State Intellectual Property Administration of China made the same ruling. With the trademark lawsuits landing one by one, Ralph Lauren was able to officially start the pace of its expansion strategy in the Chinese market.