Coco de Mer is Samantha Roddick's upmarket sex shop in Covent Garden, which had been trying to use the Coco name on its products. The Chanel brand includes perfumes and fashion accessories named after the company's founder Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, such as the fragrances Coco and Mademoiselle Coco.
Roddick claims that the shop name refers to a rare nut, which "looks naughty", found on only two islands in the Seychelles. The judge agreed in court yesterday that its two lobes resembled a female bottom and genitalia. Roddick insisted that the nut was both "spiritual and sexual" and was a "potent and particularly feminine symbol of femininity", branding her store as an "erotic emporium" rather than being smutty.
However, Chanel director Martin Hamilton claimed he did not mind if Coco de Mer products were sold only in a sex shop but would be worried if the products would appear near Chanel products in larger stores.
The judge claimed that the trade marks authority had been right to refuse the registration of Coco de Mer as a brand because the public could have been confused. "The average consumer may well assume that goods bearing the Coco de Mer mark are simply a brand of those marked Coco," he said
A controversial ad campaign for Coco de Mer through Saatchi & Saatchi in December depicted a building split in two by an earthquake to demonstrate a cheeky portrayal of the power of good sex. Another ad, called "crucifix", showed the head of a wrought-iron bed with the stain of an absent crucifix above it.
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