Porsche Sues Crocs Over Trademark Infringement

Corey Morris says:

Despite the sillyness of the matter, it's completely understandable that Crocs doesn't want to be pushed around by the big guys and are making an effort to stand their ground. I think any company would immediately react this way. Until they do a cost/benefit check.

Nevertheless, you'd also think Crocs would have bigger issues on their hands - such as coping with cheap imitations emerging on the market.

Rename the line - find a savvy, market-friendly name - and move on. This matter is far too trivial to pursue.

November 12, 2009 05:12 AM # Reply

David Bivins says:

This article misses a fundamental fact of trademarks: if you don't enforce them, you lose them. While it's funny (I guess) to pretend that Porsche thinks people will confuse cars with horrid, ugly, plastic clogs, I think Porsche is protecting the name "Cayman" so that it is associated closely with Porsche and no other manufacturer. Porsche could do this by aggressively marketing the name Cayman, as Xerox had to do in order to protect the word "xerox" from becoming public domain, or through legal means as they are here.
So to answer your question, yes, I do believe that brands help themselves by aggressively defending their trademarks. Brands that were not helped include Escalator, Formica, Linoleum, Raisin Bran, Thermos, Trampoline, Zipper, etc. They're all public domain in the US now due to this process colloquially called "genericide." It gets even more complicated when you cross country boundaries and intellectual property laws change. Aspirin is still a trademark of Bayer in Canada, but not in the US, for example.

November 12, 2009 10:40 AM # Reply

Patricia Belyea says:

This sub-branding of a Porsche product line is very different than company brand names such as Thermos and Formica. What do the Cayman Islands and Britain have to say about Porsche appropriating their territory’s name?

November 12, 2009 04:56 PM # Reply

David Bivins says:

Patricia, I assume that neither the Cayman Islands nor Great Britain have trademarked the word "Cayman" as Porsche has. Trademark is trademark whether or not it's the brand name of your flagship product or a tagline or anything else.
Incidentally, I think the whole thing is moronic and that the chance of "Cayman" undergoing the aforementioned "genericide" is nil in the context of the Crocs case. I'm just bringing up facts about intellectual property law.

November 12, 2009 05:00 PM # Reply

Alec Brown says:

Crocs may rattle its sabre about defending but the real value for them is in the coverage that this "David Vs Goliath" situation generates. My pick is they milk it for a while then quietly back down without the spending of millions on lawyer's fees.

I agree with David: Porsche's action is moronic. But maybe they, too, have a hidden agenda. Maybe Porsche is trying to bring down the Crocs business so they can buy it up and get into selling funny shaped plastic clogs.

November 12, 2009 07:40 PM # Reply

danny altman says:

i don't think porsche is so crazy. there is a kind of superagency principle in trademark law that if you are big enough, it doesn't matter what category your antagonist occupies.  for example, if i wanted to come out with a product called coca-cola car wax, i would be in trouble because coca-cola is so big that people could easily assume that they are now in the car wax business even if it's something they would never do. it seems to me that porsche is in a similar position. they are not quite big enough to own the name 'cayman' for the entire known universe, but can you blame them for trying? besides, anyone who came that close to owning volkswagen needs to show the world that they still carry a big stick.

November 12, 2009 11:18 PM # Reply

NY Agencyspy says:

The irony -- The ad agency, Cramer-Krasselt, represents Porsche also represents Crocs.  

November 13, 2009 07:51 PM # Reply

Rico Biriah says:

If we all come back down to earth for a minute then we would realise that this is just a clever stunt fueled by the rubber clogger brigade. I mean who really believes that someone in Porsche is stupid enough to think that anybody wanting a Porsche is going to end up buying a pair of clogs instead. Its so much like the VW Polo Car being confused for the Polo mint sweet that has a whole and yet both of them have co-existed for decades. Come on Porsche grow up and get a sense of humour and give all your new car buyers an exclusive pair of cayenne branded-clogs.

November 23, 2009 07:14 AM # Reply

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November 23, 2009 08:55 PM # Reply

andrej pompe says:

I agree that Porsche is old and grown-up enough not to be afraid of something that really has nothing to do with traditional German sport car elegancy but on the other hand Porsche should be grateful to Crocs to remind him that having a legendary brand and doing no special communication on a relatively young sub brand is not a picture of a good brand management.

About mixing these two totally non-similar products I would not lose any additionl words.

Everything seems to be a good PR move from either the Crocs side or the Porsche side. They might have agreed in advance about all these just to remind us that they are still here among us and that we should pay more attention to them. After all these publishing there will probably be no suit.

Another thought is that they should both think of making some synergies - like someone before me suggested - give a pair with the car.

On the other hand Cayman has much more to do with crocodiles (Crocs) than Porsche has - so the brand managers at Porsche should rethink the sub-brand name. Cayenne sounds good but is not good for stomach, Carrera means nothing to me and is absolutely the best sub brand name of Porsche (during writng these I found out that there is something that is common to all these 3 names - is the first letter C; who knows maybe these war the brief?!?).

That much from the Sunny side of the Alps.

January 4, 2010 05:45 AM # Reply

Automobili says:

Great we don't see similarity but this is good to promote synergic both brands buy suits and writing about them.

January 6, 2010 10:33 AM # Reply

Porsche Parts says:

I don't believe that this move of Porsche is trivial. Some customers tend to get confused that this brand may be related to another brand. Therefore, bag image of the other brand also affects the other brand.

January 6, 2010 10:51 PM # Reply

HomeServe says:

Has nobody told either that Cayman is a name that has belonged to the Cayman Isles for scores of years so these two late comers are arguing over a word neither owns!  Honestly at some point in the future we will not be able to talk for fear of some large corporation claiming trademark on some of the words we have used.  Look at Stellios with his sickly orange brand trying to claim that Easy .... is his when it is a word that English speaker have used for hundreds of years.

February 1, 2010 10:36 AM # Reply

club penguin cheats says:

This sub-branding of a Porsche product line is very different than company brand names such as Thermos and Formica.

February 4, 2010 04:29 AM # Reply

AT&T Center says:

This sub-branding of a Porsche product line is very different than company brand names such as Thermos and Formica. What do the Cayman Islands and Britain have to say about Porsche appropriating their territory’s name?

February 9, 2010 01:23 AM # Reply