Amazon in a spot over ‘Apni Dukaan’ tagline
Amazon India’s flagship campaign ‘Apni Dukaan’, to connect with customers in the remotest parts of the country, could run into copyright issues. Pune-based businessman Ravi Jain, who registered apnidukaan.com as a domain name back in 2007, wants Amazon to stop using the campaign. The owners of apnidukaan.com, a platform to sell kitchen appliances, electronics and furniture, are in the process of asking Amazon, which entered India in 2013, to remove all references to ‘Apni Dukaan’ from its advertisements and marketing campaigns as they own the intellectual property rights of the brand.
“Our firm and Amazon have no connection. As we own the trademark of Apni Dukaan, we are going to request Amazon to remove references to Apni Dukaan in all the ad and marketing campaigns,” Jain said.
Amazon did not comment on the issue, calling it a speculation.
According to Jain, who runs the e-commerce website as well as a few offline stores, said this was the right time to approach Amazon as he was planning an expansion and would approach investors for funds.
“I don’t want investors to be confused and think that my platform is anyway related to Amazon. I want to expand my business and would bring in investors to sell a minority stake in the firm,’’ Jain, who’s got legal advice on the matter, said.
Jain had bought the domain name a decade ago for just ~500. Analysts pointed out that it would be a windfall for him if Amazon were to buy the brand name.
Apni Dukaan, a campaign which Amazon launched via Youtube advertisements videos sometime in 2016, is an integral part of the company’s India play. In fact, in his recent letter to customers, chief executive
Jeff Bezos referred to Apni Dukaan while thanking them for their support over the last five years.
Sources said Amazon would probably want to sit across the table with Ravi Jain and brother Kamal Jain to discuss the trademark issue. At the end of it, there could be an offer to buy the domain name, one of the sources said.