The Bombay High Court has, through an interim order, restrained a company from using Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL) trademark ‘Jio’ for its taxi services being offered under the domain name http://www.jiocabs.com, as reported by PTI. Upon visiting their website, it seems like they have changed the name of the company to Cabs of India.
What happened?
A bench led by Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan granted interim relief to RIL, observing that the company had established a strong prima facie case. The court noted that unauthorised use of the widely recognised ‘Jio’ brand was likely to cause significant harm to RIL’s reputation and goodwill.
“The usage of a well-known and protected brand name would indeed cause grave injury to its owner,” the court observed in its order.
Jio trademark
RIL had approached the court seeking to restrain the use of its registered ‘Jio’ trademark by the taxi operator, arguing that the brand enjoys strong consumer recognition across sectors, including digital and telecom services.