Tech & Biz

Crocs Being Sued By Porsche Over Use of 'Cayman' Name in Germany

by Blaine Metzgar | November 10, 2009 at 12:02 pm

494 views | 4 Recommendations | 3 comments

Crocs Shoes, the Colorado-based manufacturer of the veritable podiatry abomination they call shoes, is being sued by German auto-maker Porsche for the use of Cayman as the name of a sandal. Crocs were facing bankruptcy following a £112 million loss in 2008 but in the company's recently filed 3rd Quarter 10-Q a keen blogger from Footnoted.org came across a lawsuit filed by Porsche AG in the legal proceedings section of the document.

On May 11, 2009, Crocs Europe B.V. received a letter from Dr. Ing. H.c.F. Porsche AG ("Porsche") claiming that the Company's use of the "Cayman" shoe model designator infringes upon their Community Trademark Registration of the mark "CAYMAN" in class 25. Porsche is requesting that Crocs Europe B.V. immediately cease and desist use of the Cayman mark and pay Porsche's attorney's fees in conjunction with the issuance of the notice letter. On July 30, 2009 the Company was served with notice of an injunction against Crocs Europe BV's use of the Cayman mark in Germany. The Company intends to vigorously defend itself against these claims.

While typically I would side with Porsche on the issue, the lawsuit at hand seems a bit frivolous and will most likely be dismissed: how many people would honestly ever confuse a Porsche Cayman with one of the Crocs variety? The case has yet to be taken to court but who knows, Crocs may have to change the name or their Cayman sandal, in the German automotive manufacturers territory at least.

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Yuliya Talmazan

at 12:07 on November 10th, 2009

Why would anyone name a shoe brand Cayman to begin with?

Jordan Yerman

at 13:05 on November 10th, 2009

They should have gone with "gavial". I don't know of any high-edn cars called the Gavial.

Hugh Askew

at 16:37 on November 10th, 2009

Caymann, caiman.

Crocs, crocodile.

Caimans are a specie of crocodile.

General Motors got sued for using the Beretta name on a car by the gun maker of the same name. Didn't stick, judge said they were different products, different markets. That was in the US, don't have a clue how it will play out in Porsche country.