Kuits wins Alligator trade mark case

LAW firm Kuits Solicitors has won a legal victory in a trade mark dispute brought by fashion label Lacoste.

Manchester-based Kuits defended its client, Baker Street Clothing, a suppler to a number of high street retailers in action brought by Lacoste.

The French firm had opposed the registration of the word ‘Alligator’ used by Baker Street on its clothing range because it was too close, in its opinion, to its registration for its crocodile device mark.

The case centred on how far the public would associate a word for another reptile with a physical and well known international brand device.

Geoffrey Hobbs QC decided in favour of Baker Street Clothing on the grounds that the word ‘Alligator’ on clothing would not lead an individual to associate it with Lacoste’s crocodile logo.

Ian Morris, head of intellectual property at Kuits, said, “This is a very significant decision limiting the extent of the monopoly of a famous trade mark.”