THE owner of a fashion boutique has told of several sleepless nights and months of stress as she prepared to defend her independent business in court against fashion giant ZARA.
Amber Kotrri appeared at a trademark tribunal hearing on Tuesday to defend her trademark application, where she argued her House of Zana branding shares no similarity to that of ZARA’s.
The dispute was heard at the tribunal after she refused a written request from ZARA to change her branding last year.
The Darlington-based retailer specialises in ethically sourced and sustainable, high-quality clothing. At the hearing, Mrs Kotrri highlighted how her independent local business is smaller and has a different ethos to one of the high streets most popular fast fashion brands.
Yet ZARA argues there is a risk "consumers will misread, mishear, mispronounce and/or otherwise perceive House of Zana as ZARA" and that the brand name "dilutes the distinctiveness and reputation the ZARA brand".
Read more: Darlington's House of Zana and ZARA in court over branding
A decision on the trademark ruling is expected to be delivered later this year but legal representatives for ZARA asked to be awarded costs "at the very upper end of the scale" to repay the time it has taken to compile evidence.
Speaking after the hearing, Mrs Kotrri said: “I’m feeling relieved that it’s over because I was losing sleep over the stress of it.
“But now, I wouldn’t say I feel relaxed because of that last comment about the costs. I feel confident that hopefully sense will be seen and we will win but on the other hand, as a small business with a young family, I have no idea what those costs are going to be.
“I’ll be checking my emails every day hoping for a decision.”
Defending her trademark application has been an education for Mrs Kotrri as she spent hours researching how to compile her argument ahead of the hearing. She created a folder’s worth of documents full of evidence to back her case, including sales reports and customer reviews.
And she also had to learn the basics of intellectual property law before appearing without professional representation at the hearing.
“I spent the weekend researching all the case studies included in their evidence and wondering how I can defend them,” said Mrs Kotrri. “It was interesting but a lot of work.
“I’m very glad that I don’t have to do it anymore because it’s not my forte, it’s fashion design.”
RECAP: Zara and House of Zana in court over shop’s branding
ZARA argued that the ‘House of’ element of Mrs Kotrri’s branding is merely “descriptive and non-distinctive”, suggesting the average consumer wouldn’t take notice of two thirds of the businesses branding.
Julia King, for ZARA, said: “The words “House of” are so descriptive and non-distinctive and Zana looks so much like ZARA in that font that we can really see how the average consumer would misread House of Zana given the small difference.”
But Mrs Kotrri refuted this claim at the hearing and said she has never intended for it to be referred to as ‘Zana’ alone, while mentioning how House of Fraser is never referred to as ‘Fraser’.
She added: “They were trying to talk about my mark as just ‘Zana’ but that is not my brand - it’s House of Zana.”
Fellow small business owners and shoppers have announced their support of Mrs Kotrri since she announced her legal challenge in April. An online petition in support of her case has received nearly 75,000 signatures.
“I feel like I started this off very alone and scared against such a huge business but it now feels like the whole of Darlington and the country is behind me,” she said. “I feel confident because of all this support.
“I want to carry this on because there’s so many more businesses who have been sent the same letter from ZARA. I want to win it for them as well and to say to them: keep fighting. Don’t give in.”
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