Edition: U.S. / Global


Published: June 12, 1996

What's in a name? The focus of a lawsuit if the name is Cousteau. JACQUES COUSTEAU and his son, JEAN-MICHEL COUSTEAU, have reached a settlement in a bitter dispute over the name of a resort opened by the younger Mr. Cousteau in the Fiji Islands.

A permanent injunction was signed on Monday by Judge Vaughn R. Walker of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, requiring the resort to add Jean-Michel Cousteau's first name to its title and to set the first name in the same color, size and typeface as the last name in its advertisements and literature.

Jacques Cousteau, the renowned ocean explorer, and the Cousteau Society, of which he is president, won a temporary injunction last December, ordering the change from the original name, the Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort. The resort, which opened in April 1995 on the island of Vanua Levu, was designed to be environmentally sensitive. For example, fishing, power boats and jet skis are prohibited.

Mr. Cousteau, who lives in Paris and turned 86 yesterday, filed the suit in September, his lawyer LEE STEINER explained, because ''it is a profit-making enterprise, and we did not want people to think that the resort is sponsored by the Cousteau Society and is endorsed by Jacques.''

''Any income he earns goes to the society, which is a not-for-profit organization,'' Mr. Steiner added.

But Mr. Cousteau's son, a former producer of Cousteau films, who quit the society in 1993, said: ''The Fiji resort is the perfect illustration of putting into action what we have been preaching. It proves that we can be environmentally friendly and economically viable. If we can't show that we can make a profit, no one will listen to us.''

Jean-Michel Cousteau, 58, said he and his father had not spoken for two and a half years. ''I am still surprised that the society felt compelled to go to court, spend time, energy and lots of money over something that my father and I could have resolved with a handshake and a hug,'' he said.

Photo: Jacques Cousteau