What's in a name? BigBasket slaps notice on Daily Basket for use of 'basket' in name

What's in a name? BigBasket slaps notice on Daily Basket for use of 'basket' in name

India's largest online grocery portal BigBasket has served a cease and desist notice to startup Daily Basket for using the word 'basket' in its name. The grocery giant has claimed that the startup infringes on its trademark and brand. Daily Basket published a blog 'BB is a bully' and to refute the claims.

The notice stated, "...the mere mention or reference of a name containing "basket" in word or logo form for any e-commerce business and related products conjure in the minds of relevant class of consumers and members of trade as that of being associated with our client."

The BigBasket notice also said that Daily Basket is carrying out an e-commerce business that offers similar products and services through a similar domain name. BigBasket said in its notice that Daily Basket uses a 'deceptively and/or confusingly similar' name and mark.

"Your unauthorised acts are severely detrimental to the distinctive character and reputation of our client's brand 'BigBasket/Bigbasket.com'. The same are causing irreparable injury that cannot be computed in monetary terms. For such illegal acts, our client is entitled under civil and criminal law to take legal action against you and to seek legal recourse by way of a permanent injunction, account of profits and/or damages, in addition to other available reliefs, without any notice to you," stated the notice to Daily Basket.

The startup made the legal notice public and published a blog in an attempt to counter BigBasket's claims. "Except the word 'basket', there are no similarities or trademark violations in the brand logo. Colours are different, font is different, graphics is different and the name itself is different. So they want to sue us because we have 'basket' in our name. Last time we checked no one has monopoly in the word 'basket' or having the word 'basket' and selling groceries online. NaturesBasket.com was actually started in 2005, way before BigBasket," said Daily Basket in its blog.

BigBasket said in the notice that the layout of the site was similar to theirs. Daily Basket argued that it is a different UI (user interface) all together. Category menu, searchbar and product visuals are similar but that's similar across platforms including Grofers, Jiomart, Amazon and Flipkart, said the startup.

BigBasket is on the verge of finalising divesting a majority stake to Tata Group for $2 billion. Daily Basket has a 3,000 sq ft warehouse and operates only in Coimbatore. It aims to open its first offline store soon.

Source: www.businesstoday.in

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