As a rule, when asked what will be the outcome of a trademark dispute between Zara and in a small company, people spontaneously answered first. Everything is not so simple and often, keeping the proportions, David defeats Goliath. A related BBC article mentions a legal dispute between Amber Cottri, a boutique owner and designer in Darlington, in the northeast of the UK, and Spanish giant Zara. The case made headlines in August because Amber Cautry won a trademark lawsuit. Zana’s house. Now she hopes her story will inspire other small companies, and it’s worth noting that she hasn’t hired a lawyer to represent her. In an interview with the BBC, she said that she was absolutely sure of the validity of her claim, therefore she did not appoint another person to protect her. The UK patent and copyright authority agreed that any resemblance between his own brand and the Zara group was subtle and fleeting.

Since then, she’s been inundated with messages from other small business owners who, like her, have letters from Zara’s lawyers. “The letter usually says: “The company really wants to resolve this issue peacefully,” but there is no golden mean, there is no opportunity to discuss anything,” says Amber Cottri. And the letter continues: “You are only given a few weeks to sign a statement that you will withdraw your trademark application, and then another three months to “remove” your brand, this is the only option.”

Expensive choice

As the BBC points out, of course, rebranding a business doesn’t come cheap, as it involves a wide range of activities, including changes to packaging, merchandise, websites and social media. An example, again featuring Zara, is Juhi Jain from Jaipur, India, who named her handmade shoe company Zarsá, a mixture of the Urdu word Zar and the Hindi suffix “sa”. According to him, it meant “like gold” and referred to the thread he uses in sewing. He spent nearly £30,000 and was embroiled in a legal dispute with Zara for two years. The latter first filed a notice of objection in 2017 and then again when it was renamed Zarsalife. He eventually settled under the name of Sozan Jaipur. Juhi Jain admits that she has never been compensated for items lost since the rebrand and there is no monetary compensation that can heal her from the emotional and mental toll involved in the whole process.

Another business owner Zara contacted was Moyen Tayari from London, who ran not a clothing company but… nuts and spices. His name was Zaravand, and the source of inspiration was his wife’s homeland in Iran. He spent nearly £4,000 on legal letters to keep his company name. Finally, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in the UK has called for the creation of a public service to deal with such cases.