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This leaked video and announcement from Arc'teryx, quoted below, belies what is clearly a brand in trouble. Arc'teryx, makers of performance and tactical equipment and apparel, has lost a longstanding international courtroom battle that has waged for years behind closed doors at the Hague over the use of the name "Arc'teryx".
In 1991, the Canadian rock climbing manufacturer changed its name from Rock Solid, to Arc'teryx. What has never been reported is the reasoning behind the change of identity.
nextpage"We had no idea this little garage company had appropriated our name," said Fin Xian, CEO of Arcterix.
Xian claims the name change was an effort to cash in on the international name recognition his company garnered in the early '80s. The China-based clothier didn't become aware of the infringement until late 1998, he said, when it received permission from the Chinese government to export products using what was a new internet-based commerce system called eBay.
"I was shocked," he said, "but, not as shocked as when I saw the pencil sketches of their clothing that looked like stitch-for-stitch copies of our own designs."
Xian remembers his director of marketing, Sun An Li, showing him the sketches of Arc'teryx products made at a trade show in 2000. It was 2002 when the company filed suit in the Gansu provincial court of the Communist Party of the Peoples Republic of China.
The case slowly made its way through a series of 14 hearings at committee, municipal, county, state, provincial, party and national levels until it was heard to the People's Court of the Communist Party of the Peoples Republic of China. Upon their victory in the People's Court, corporate officers took the case to the Hague, where the international court found in their favor in a split decision last night.
"Shameless," Xian recalls, "But I am glad that the international community has supported our longstanding claim to the trademark and the rich legacy of innovation we cultivated over the years."
In a statement to Military Times GearScout, Archaeopteryx Senior Director of Global Marketing Adam Fetchelson sidestepped questions posed about the international court's finding of trademark infringement against the company.
"Here-" wrote Fetchelson in an email that contained only his corporate email signature and an unopenable file attachment entitled "winmail.dat."
Calls to the company's Vancouver office were not returned.
Here is the leaked press release from Archaeopteryx as posted on Soldier Systems Daily today:
Vancouver, B.C. - April 1 2014 - North Vancouver based outdoor apparel manufacturer Arc'teryx today announced it is rebranding.
Arc'teryx, or rather the brand formerly known as Arc'teryx, has undertaken a major rebranding effort in order to unburden the tongues of outdoor enthusiasts around the world. Effective April 1, the Company is switching from the condensed word, Arc'teryx to it's easier to pronounce root -Archaeopteryx.
"The name Arc'teryx is a key part of our history and we will always be proud of that. But as our products enter markets around the world, we want everyone to enjoy saying our name as much as they do wearing our products; that's why it's important to have a name that will be easy to pronounce across the globe," said Vincent Wauters, GM & CEO of the company. "Authenticity is central to our brand and it always felt like we were betraying ourselves with the abbreviated word. Now, we can move forward, confident that we are true to our core users and the core of our name."
Beginning immediately, all products will have the full word updated under the logo. In Burnaby, where the brand has its own factory, the intense reprogramming of machinery and positioning the full name has already started. A redesign of the new logo was unveiled today along with the two year multi-million dollar plan to entirely erase the previous name.
The company is asking for patience from its customers. An online registration, for those wishing to have their products rebranded, will be in place shortly. When asked if the cost of the new look was going to be reflected in future pricing, Vincent Wauters had "no comment at this time."
