Holiday giant in legal battle with bag company over name
Holiday firm TUI is taking legal action against a handbag company over its name.
Businesswoman Charlotte Jamme, from Milton Keyes, set up her company Mia Tui, which translates as 'my bags' in Vietnamese, four years ago.
German firm TUI AG says she must stop using the name as there is a "likelihood of confusion".
According to the BBC, Mrs Jamme said "no-one has ever confused Mia Tui with TUI and in the UK, nothing's branded TUI".
She accused the company of bullying her small business.
Speaking to MailOnline Travel, Mrs Jamme said: "I just feel sick to my stomach because I know how big TUI AG is and I know how small I am. They are a major global travel company and we are a bag company.
"You just go cold, and it's the last thing you really want in your hands especially when I can't afford to take legal advice."
TUI's solicitors asked her to "voluntarily remove" the name this summer, but Jamme refused.
They have now officially opposed the registration of the Mia Tui trademark after attempting "to reach an amicable solution failed".
Mrs Jamme set up her company in 2010 after spending three years living in Vietnam. She sold 200 bags after just six weeks.
"I was flying between Vietnam and the UK but travel bags are usually awful – you can never find anything you've put in them," she told Milton Keynes Citizen.
"I thought that I could design one myself, with inner bags for documents, with separate pockets around the inside, an insulated part for drinks, and which were the right size for cabin lockers.
"People loved them, so I decided to start selling them. I went out and found the materials, found a factory which still makes them."
Related articles
200 holidaymakers suing Butlins over illness from 'undercooked food'
Anguished wife says airline lost her dead husband's body
