Zara orders House of Zana to drop name over trademark row

Amber Kotrri refuses to rename her business and insists there is no risk of confusion

A small business owner locked in a trademark battle with a global High Street retailer has hit out at their "very intimidating" conduct.

Amber Kotrri was contacted by lawyers for clothing firm Zara a year ago claiming her Darlington shop House of Zana was "conceptually identical".

Zara previously said it was making efforts to "resolve the matter amicably" but Mrs Kotrri denies this.

She said the Spanish company just gave her three months to shut down.

'Pick on small businesses'

Mrs Kotrri said: "The only correspondence I've had from Zara was the lawyers asking me to close my business, they've never tried to speak to me amicably, it's so upsetting.

"What the letter did say was that because Zara had started as a small family business and because of the pandemic it had empathy towards other small businesses and would give me three months to close everything down."

She said she refused to sign the letter, which asked her to phase out the House of Zana brand name on her boutique, tags, business cards, social media and website.

The row erupted after Mrs Kotrri tried to trademark the name House of Zana and the company's lawyers sent a notice of opposition arguing the County Durham business was "conceptually identical" for customers.

Amber Kotrri said supplying evidence to Zara's legal team coincided with the birth of her daughter

Mrs Kotrri said: "In between that time I've been pregnant, had a baby and she's just turned three months old and I have two other children, and while I understand Zara do not know my personal circumstances they do know when they target small independent businesses that it's one person behind that and they cause them extra stress."

Mrs Kotrri, who employs nine members of staff, will represent herself at a tribunal next month which will decide whether she can keep the name.

She said she remained "determined" not to back down, after receiving "so much" support from people contacting her.

Mum-of-three Mrs Kotrri says dealing with lawyers has cost her time with her children

North East retail consultant Graham Soult tweeted: "If Zara is objecting to an independent business called House of Zana, where does it end? H&M trying to close down B&M because part of the name is the same?"

Another supporter wrote: "Well done Amber, all the best in your fight. Don't let them bully you. You have a good little business and worked hard to succeed in these troubled times."

Mrs Kotrri said that since the letter from Zara's legal team, she had replied to 10 emails with information about her business, detailing invoices, stock, staffing and articles written about it.

"It has been months of back and forth providing evidence to lawyers and although it hasn't cost me anything but time, that's time I could've spent with my children," she said.

"I can fight this but big multi-billion businesses shouldn't be allowed to pick on small businesses when there's no similarity and we're not bothering them."

Tara Nguyen (left) from Tara Sartoria has also received a letter from Zara's lawyers asking it to give up its brand name

Another company locked in the same dispute with Zara is Tara Sartoria, which sells a small range of hand-made silk products made by disadvantaged women in Indonesia and Vietnam.

The business, which has one full-time office employee, donates 10% of its profits to help women start their own micro-businesses and attend university.

Its Vietnamese owner Tara Nguyen contacted the BBC to say she had also been sent a legal letter from the fashion giant which she found "grossly unjust".

Ms Nguyen said: "Going against a massive corporation like Zara/Inditex is a terrifying position to be in.

"Changing all of my branding, logo, packaging, etcetera would be a fatal blow to my business, and unfortunately would derail my mission to help otherwise impoverished women stand on their own and benefit their families and villages."

She said replying to the notice of opposition sent in November 2021 had cost her business "almost all of our available resources".

Inditex is one of the world's largest fashion retailers, with seven brands, including Zara

Inditex, which is the parent company of Zara, is one of the world's largest fashion distribution groups with 6,477 stores including Bershka, Pull & Bear and Massimo Dutti.

It maintains its intention "is always to resolve these things amicably" but it did not respond to claims that that statement was unfair.

Mrs Kotrri, whose husband is Albanian, said her business was named House of Zana after the European country's word for fairy.

Ms Nguyen said her business was named Tara after the Buddhist goddess of compassion and protection.

Neither of the small businesses are willing to change their brand names and both said they would continue to oppose the request from Zara's lawyers.