A protracted trademark dispute between Polo Ralph Lauren and the U.S. Polo Association, beginning in 1984, tested whether a commercial brand could claim exclusive rights to symbols and terms rooted in sport and history.
Ralph Lauren is a fashion brand founded in 1967 that built a global multibillion-dollar enterprise around Anglophile heritage aesthetics, beginning with men's ties and expanding through the Polo line, the Polo player emblem (first seen on a women's shirt cuff in 1971), and the first freestanding store for an American designer on Rodeo Drive in 1971.