Nalli accuses Snapdeal of copyright and trademark infringement

Chennai's Nalli Chinnasami Chetty popularly known as Nalli, an 85-year-old clothing brand specialising in premium silk saris, has sent a cease and desist notice to Delhi-based ecommerce company Snapdeal. The latter has allegedly used Nalli’s registered trademark as a search word and copying images from its website making an offer on silk saris.

According to the company, it is a deliberate attempt by Snapdeal to deceive consumers, who would assume that the offers are available on original ‘Nalli’ silk saris. The platform has not only been using the Nalli trademark as a search word, which is an act of property infringement but the saris on display were defined as Nalli silk saris.

As per retail consultancy firm Wazir Advisors, the ethnic wear market is expected to grow at 12 per cent by 2018 to Rs 500,000 crores from the current market size of Rs 250,000 crores. The women's ethnic wear market is expected to expand by 14 per cent to Rs 1.75 lakh crore in 2018.