Are you buying a Porsche or a Croc?

November 12, 2009 – 10:20 am – No Comment

Cayman

Porsche is taking Crocs to court over the name Cayman…as if anyone isn’t able to tell the difference between a plastic shoe and a $50,000 sports car?

The copyright dispute was opened in Germany by Porsche. The company is requesting that Crocs Europe B.V. stop selling shoes with the name Cayman as their style name. Porsche is also asking for Crocs to pay for its attorney fees according to a notice letter from the company.

The notice was given to the shoe maker on My 11th. According to the company Crocs said that it was “served with notice of an injunction against Crocs Europe BV’s use of the Cayman mark in Germany.” So, I suppose that this means that, if the filing were to go to trial and Porsche were to win, that Crocs would only have to change the name in Germany?

This is very Monster Cable-ish of Porsche to do (For those who don’t know: Monster Cable was going around about a year ago suing any and everyone who used the term “Monster” in the name of their product). These two products are not in the same market and honestly, do not often target the same people. Most of the people I notice wearing Crocs are not exactly the same people who are driving anything made by Porsche.

I can’t figure out why Porsche would want to pick a fight against a shoe company. Then again, I suppose that any publicity is “good” publicity. This is just kind of dumb and if it is just a publicity stunt by Porsche, then it should have to pay any attorney fees that Crocs incurs while it tries to figure out how to fight a German trademark dispute.

Oh, the image at the head of the post is a real Cayman and the thing that comes to mind whenever anyone says “Cayman” around me.