July 26, 2022
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According to the BBC, prominent fast fashion retailer Zara is currently in a legal battle with a small business owner, claiming that the business, House of Zana (a UK-based womenswear brand), is “conceptually identical” to Zara’s business and that there is a “high degree of visual and oral similarities” between the two.
Zara reportedly submitted to a tribunal that House of Zana’s trademark application should be refused because the business’s name is too similar to Zara, and may cause confusion of the two brands amongst consumers. Zara claims that the word Zana is merely “one small brush mark” away from the word Zara. Further, they argue “House of” is a common term used in the fashion industry when referring to designers and brands, and does not make the name distinctive from Zara.
However, House of Zana owner, Amber Kotrri, has reportedly argued that her brand has never been called anything other than “House of Zana” and that Zara’s claim therefore ignores the fact that the brand as a whole has never been known as “Zana”. In fact, all of Kotrri’s social media and branding efforts reportedly refer to the brand as such or by the acronym “HOZ”.
Kotrri notes that Zara has not proven that consumers find the name of her business misleading and that Zara is an established global brand which customers can easily distinguish from her own.
Authors: Taryn Wunder and Caitlin Woodford