Lacoste Begins Re-Opening Stores in the United States

Lacoste Store in Buenos AiresWomen’s Wear Daily reports:

Lacoste has begun reopening its U.S. boutiques and outlet location by implementing a slew of new operational guidelines. Eight locations throughout Texas were the first to reopen May 8, followed by additional stores in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio on May 15. Others will reopen as local mandates allow.

Lacoste is also taking two major steps to reassure customers. First, “each store will follow a cleaning and disinfecting process prior to opening and also mid-day” using a professional cleaning service. Secondly, Lacoste will be offering real-time data to their customers:

Customers will be able to scan QR codes within the retail stores that will give them live updates on how many times and when the retail store was last professionally cleaned and sanitized, as well as the store’s current capacity so it does not exceed its threshold.

Read more at Women’s Wear Daily.

Lacoste doubles mask production to 200,000 for Covid-19 Response

TR Business reports that Lacoste has doubled their production of masks to 200,000 as part of their Covid-19 response:

Praising the work of its factory employees and ‘daily heroes’ in France and Argentina, Thierry Guibert, CEO, Lacoste said: “From the merchants in the Troyes region of France to the medical workers in the San Juan region of Argentina, our teams have been critical for the unprecedented production, allowing us to contribute to the protection of essential workers.

“I’d like to take this moment to express my gratitude to them and to all Lacoste teams around the world.”

Read more at TR Business.

Izod And Lacoste Brand Confusion Persists To This Day

Lacoste and Izod have not been connected brands since the early nineteen-nineties, but apparently the brand confusion persists to this day among some people. In a recent story on the release of  former reality television star Jorge Nava, The Daily Mail reported that he was “wearing a plain white Izod Lacoste t-shirt.”

The picture accompanying the article makes it clear that he’s wearing a white, crew neck, Lacoste t-shirt similar to the one shown below:

Lacoste White Crew Neck T-Shirt

To see the picture, go to the story on The Daily Mail. To better understand the relationship between Izod and Lacoste, see History of Lacoste. Meanwhile, let’s hope it won’t take another thirty years before the brands are no longer confused.

 

Lacoste Adopting Stronger Trademark Enforcement Strategy in India

The India Business Law Journal reports that they are seeing increased cases where global brands are bringing trademark infringement cases against local Indian entities. In particular, they report that:

In the case of Lacoste SA v Suresh Kumar Sharma, the court granted a permanent injunction restraining the defendant from using the Lacoste mark. The plaintiff had initially applied to the court to issue a John Doe order (which is passed when the true and exact identity of the defendant is not accurately ascertained) granting a permanent injunction to restrain the violation of the trademark of, and copyright in, its well-known products. The trademark covered clothing, footwear, perfumes, leather goods, watches, eyewear and other related products.

After the court appointed a local commissioner to investigate the matter and report back to the court, an application was made to specify the name of the defendant as shown in the name of the case instead of passing it against anonymous entities. The local commissioner discovered 290 shirts and 850 tags bearing the impugned mark, which were being stored for sale at a location connected to the defendant. No challenge had been made to the report and the court held that the defendant was supplying infringing goods under the Lacoste trademark. The use of the trademark was both an act of infringement and passing off. The court granted a permanent injunction restraining the defendant from using the Lacoste mark and infringing its copyright when supplying the concerned goods.

According to the Journal, “this case is a good example of how big brands are instituting infringement cases to protect their trade names from future infringement, without knowing the exact identities of defendants and where the quantity of goods involved may be small. Read more at Vantage Asia.

Editor’s Note: As always, the counterfeit Lacoste keeps coming, so before you buy make sure you check out my articles on detecting fake Lacoste shirts and detecting fake Lacoste bags, or my detailed discussion of how to authenticate Lacoste.