Hands and Sharing are located about 500 metres apart. The stores are among several book and gift shops on and around King Street’s busy shopping strip.
An employee at Sharing said the criticism was unwarranted when The Sun-Herald visited the store last week.
“They say we have copied them because we used the green but, if you look for yourselves, the name is different,” they said.
“Many gift shops go to the same designers for products.”
Answering questions via email, Sharing claimed it was not aware of Hands before opening its new store.
Sharing confirmed it conducted business under both a company name and a “branding name” but denied this caused any confusion for suppliers.
However, Sharing said it was open to changing aspects of its business after the backlash.
“If there is something that makes someone unhappy, as a new shop, we can make some change,” it said.
Sharing said it was insulted by accusations, and described the situation as “very sad”.
On Wednesday, Sharing posted a rebuttal to Hands’ post on its own Instagram page, which has 1000 followers.
“We haven’t even officially opened yet and we are already being bullied,” the post, which highlighted differing elements of the two stores’ design, read.
In response, Luckman told The Sun-Herald he rejected Sharing’s assertions, but he would not be pursuing the matter further.
He said he only sought to let his customers know that they were not the same business by making the widely shared Instagram post.
“As long as customers know that they aren’t us then that’s all that matters,” he said.
Andrew Terry, a University of Sydney professor of business regulation with expertise in business, intellectual property and competition law said small businesses had little legal protection in these matters.
“The only real way you can get proprietorship is through a registered trademark,” he said, noting that, in this instance, a trademark on the name of the shop would have been irrelevant.
“Any remedy would be in showing misleading or deceptive conduct, or the common law tort of passing off.
“This doesn’t seem to cross the line into that,” Terry said of the situation with the gift shops.
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