The Beijing High People's Court yesterday gave approval to the conciliation reached by two "crocodiles" - the clothing firms French Lacoste and Hong Kong-based Crocodile on trademark disputes.

The conciliation decision marks the first ever ending of the year-long lawsuit put forward by the French firm La Chemise Lacoste against the accused trademark infringing act by companies with similar trademarks in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Singapore and East China's Zhejiang Province.

According to the agreement, Hong Kong-based Crocodile Garments Ltd should stop using the current picture trademark after March 31, 2006, while Lacoste approved that the Hong Kong company could have the monopoly over a new symbol from that date. But the symbol is forbidden to use the green colour which was used in the Lacoste symbol.

"The win-win agreement will lay the solid foundation for the intellectual property rights (IPR) protection of both sides, as well as helping to protect our interests on the Chinese market," said a joint declaration released yesterday.

The declaration also vowed that the two companies will launch joint efforts to fight against pirated products and seek full support from the Chinese Government and judicial organizations.

Besides the legal case that was concluded yesterday, three other trademark infringement lawsuits are ongoing at the Beijing High People's Court and the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court, said sources.

Established in 1933, Lacoste has achieved trademark registration in over 190 countries and regions, including China.

Lacoste accused Hong Kong-based Crocodile of using a similar trademark to Lacoste's registered trademark crocodile on garments, which infringed Lacoste's exclusive rights over the trademark, registered in China in 1980.

Lacoste had called for 3.5 million yuan (US$423,000) compensation in a 1998 legal appeal, but this was scrapped in yesterday's agreement.

"It was a really difficult case and this final successful decision was the result of much hard work," said Bernard Lacoste, chairman of Lacoste, after the conciliation was reached yesterday.

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