Online grocery giant BigBasket has taken the fight to a bootstrapped South Indian startup over the use of the word "basket" in their name. BigBasket has allegedly accused Daily Basket of trying to imitate its brand, website and mobile app. To that extent, BigBasket reportedly sent a cease and desist letter, demanding Daily Basket to shut down its operations and hand over the domain name free of cost.
In a cease and desist letter shared by Daily Basket in their detailed point-by-point rebuttal, it is also mentioned that the startup compensates BigBasket's legal expenses worth Rs 2 lakh. All of this and more is pointed out in a website created by Daily Basket's founder Ramesh Vel, where he has called out the billion-dollar company.
The website, bbisabully.com, takes a dig at BigBasket for their demands and makes a strong case against each of the points. As per the website, BigBasket is allegedly demanding Daily Basket to stop using its domain name dailybasket.com, stop all operations, mobile app, transfer the domain for free, compensate the legal fees, and never use the word "basket" ever again.
Daily Basket denies allegations; gives fitting response
Daily Basket has accepted that it is a tiny bootstrapped company, which is only operational in Coimbatore and run by two persons Ramesh Vel and Ajit Kumar. Daily Basket is operated out of one warehouse and plans to open first physical mini-store later this month. Without financial backing to fight the legal battle against BigBasket, Vel decided to put his defence in public for everyone to judge.
"We don't have that mighty power & money bigbasket possess to engane in endless lawsuits and unlawful intimidations. But we will show the truth in public to everyone to see what bigbasket has become. And how a big billion dollar company sees a upcomer as a competition and trying to eliminate us with corporate bullying," Vel writes.
In the website, Daily Basket not only denies the allegations, but also showed side-by-side comparison of BigBasket and Daily Basket apps and websites to show how different they are.
"Except the word 'basket', there are no similarities or trademark violations in the brand logo. Colors 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," Daily Basket said in its blog post.
The notice, dated February 17, alleges that DailyBasket's app creates an impression that it is associated with BigBasket in Coimbatore, to which Daily Basket asked: "could you please care to explain where in the world did we say or imply we are associated with bigBasket in Coimbatore??"
BigBasket has not responded publicly on the cease and desist letter allegedly sent to Daily Basket. The article will duly be updated.
BigBasket faces netizens' ire
After Daily Basket made its rebuttal public, it was only a matter of time before netizens took notice of it. Soon, it became national headlines and BigBasket was at the receiving end of severe criticism and backlash. Check out some reactions below:
