Lacoste has crocodile win

French sportswear firm Lacoste has scored a win in its long-running crocodile trademark wars.

Lacoste and Asian clothingmaker Crocodile International have been tangling in the courts for years over the rights of their respective crocodile designs and the word ‘‘crocodile’’.

Trademarks are intended to brand products, and registering them can be a kind of legal protection from others imitating a trademark for the same classes of products.

Lacoste had already registered the word ‘‘crocodile’’ and its crocodile image, but a trademarks commissioner balked when the French label wanted to put them together because Crocodile International had already filed its own similar appli- cation in the clothing, footwear and headgear category.

Because of related court proceedings, the commissioner wanted the Lacoste application to sit at least until Crocodile’s application was decided – even though Crocodile International has no trading presence in New Zealand. In a recent decision, a High Court judge at Wellington said her own decision was delayed by more than 18 months for some of the same reasons, as related case decisions were issued. Justice Karen Clark decided Lacoste’s composite mark of design and word in a plain font should be registered because it was substantially the same as the crocodile design alone, which was already registered.