Mumbai: An Indian-origin designer based in New York has accused popular Italian brand owner Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani known mononymously as Valentino, of stealing her patented designs and commissioning it to a rival company. She alleges that she lost Rs80 crore due to this, while also adding that the accused also demanded sexual favours from her.
The Matunga police have registered a case against nine people, including Valentino, his company, staffers, and other Indian residents named Rameka Angela, Sheela Bulchandani, Vivekananda Bulchandani and others.
The complainant, 30, works from New York for the company and outsources all the items from the office located in Matunga, she said in her statement to the police.
She added that she pioneered certain unique knitting and sewing techniques which are known as ‘Intarsia’ and ‘sandwich patch’ which were taken, used and copied by Valentino, who is reportedly known as the world’s most recognized fashion brand. She further claims that in her absence, some employees from Valentino’s entered her office in Matunga, and unlawfully took pictures and videos of her designs – which they then supplied to another company named Rayan Exports.
Not only did they repeatedly steal her copyrighted fashion designs, they even asked other companies to “recreate” her designs, without her consent and brought them for cheaper prices – which led to the complainant’s company losing over Rs80 crores, she said, adding that it’s an unethical attempt to source large quantities of clothing from cheap suppliers. In her complaint, she also added that she was asked for sexual favours by some of Valentino’s employees when she tried to confront them.
A case has been registered against all the nine accused under sections 354 (assault/criminal force to any woman intending to outrage her modesty), 420 (cheating), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 506 (2) (criminal intimidation – issuing death threat), among others of the Indian Penal Code.
