Enormous Fashion Company Zara Opposes Trademark For Tiny ‘House Of Zana’ Fashion House
from the getting-some-Zs dept
The last time we discussed Zara, the clothing retailer based out of Spain, it was to witness the company tripping all over itself to apologize to mainland China for denoting Taiwan and Hong Kong as countries on its website. Well, now the company is back, this time for engaging in a somewhat silly trademark opposition to another, far smaller fashion house named House of Zana. After Zara opposed the smaller company’s trademark application, claiming that the names were too similar and would cause confusion, hearings were held in the UK.
During the hour-long hearing, Zara’s attorney, Julia King, submitted that the House of Zana trademark application should be refused because it was too similar in name, which could result in customers confusing one trademark for another.
Ms King said the word Zana was “one small brush mark” away from Zara and added “House of” was a common term used by “many parties” as a way of referring to fashion businesses.
There are a couple of problems here. First, yes, “Zara” and “Zana” are one letter away from each other. But, as House of Zana owner Amber Kotrri noted in that same hearing, the application is for “House of Zana”, instead of just “Zana.” It’s the entire trademark that Zara must oppose, not one small part of it.
From there, we can get into Zara’s claim that “House of” is so common a term that it shouldn’t even enter into the equation. First, that’s not really how this works in trademark law. And even if it was, “House of” is obviously not that commonly used in this marketplace, given that Zara itself is not known anywhere as “House of Zara”. It’s just Zara. And for the purposes of customer confusion between these two specific brands, that makes a difference.
Mrs Kotrri added that Zara had failed to provide evidence to prove consumers would find House of Zana misleading, and that it was clear to customers there was “no opposition”.
Likely because there is no consumer confusion to be pointed at, in this case. And, we absolutely must add to all this that Zara appears to have recently adopted a far more aggressive posture when it comes to policing trademarks. House of Zana is not the only company Zara has targeted with claims that other company’s names are too similar to its own. For instance, Zara has also challenged the trademark for Tara Sartoria, ostensibly because “Tara” and “Zara” are too similar. Tara Sartoria, by the way, is owned by Tara Nguyen, who employs “disadvantaged women in Indonesia and Vietnam” as a way to help them.
I could also note that Zara has been the subject of accusations that it infringed on the designs of other designers and sold them as its own in the past, but I won’t… Oh look, I guess I just did. The point here is that this is yet another instance of a big company trademark bullying smaller companies, mostly because it can. Certainly House of Zana is of no threat to Zara, yet here we are.
Filed Under: consumer confusion, fashion, trademark
Companies: house of zana, zara
Comments on “Enormous Fashion Company Zara Opposes Trademark For Tiny ‘House Of Zana’ Fashion House”
Its a pity that the lawyers bringing these idiotic actions can’t just be sentenced to take a CLI entitled “Its a Trademark, not a birthright”.
Ah! A totally original name from whole cloth. Got it!
From the Wikipedia entry, Founded by Amancio Ortega in 1975, Zara is a flagship clothing chain store that is part of Inditex group, the world’s largest apparel retailer. Amancio Ortega opened the first Zara store in 1975 in central A Coruña, Galicia, Spain where the company is still based. Ortega initially named the store Zorba after the classic 1964 film Zorba the Greek, but after learning there was a bar with the same name two blocks away, the letters were remolded for the sign to say “Zara”. It is believed the extra ‘a’ came from an additional set of letters that had been made for the company.
named the store Zorba after the classic 1964 film Zorba the Greek,
named the store after the film Zorba the Greek,
Otherwise we have got confused between Zara and House of Dara, or House of Tara, or House of Fara, or House of of Mara, or House of Lara The House of Lara were most prominent in the history of Castile and León from the 11th to the 14th century. and you get the picture.
Re:
And when you add the House of Mouse into the mix… 😉
The last time we discussed Zara, the clothing retailer based out of Spain, it was to witness the company tripping all over itself to apologize to mainland China for denoting Taiwan and Hong Kong as countries on its website.
Which is why no one in my family buys from them. Yes, Hong Kong is part of China, but Taiwan is part of the Republic of China, not the People’s ‘Republic’ of China.
Let’s throw money at lawyers for no reason, and force others to throw money at lawyers, too! (Wildly runs around in circles, waving arms in the air.)