Top News

In an interim order the Bombay High Court has barred a company from using Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL) ‘Jio’ trademark for its taxi services operated through the website www.jiocabs.com. A bench led by Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan granted interim relief to RIL noting that the company had made out a strong prima facie case. The court observed that unauthorised use of the widely recognised ‘Jio’ brand could cause significant damage 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 noted. RILs Plea Over Jio trademark The order was passed on a plea filed by RIL claiming it was the registered proprietor of the Jio mark. The energy-to-telecom conglomerate contended that the use of the mark Jiocabs and the associated domain name amounted to trademark infringement and passing off. The bench noted that pursuant to a legal notice from RIL the defendant firm shifted to a new name but the domain name www.jiocabs.com was still active. Hence interim order by way of injunction was justified the court said restraining the defendant from using the Jio trademark the impugned domain name or any logos labels or artwork identical or deceptively similar to Reliances trademarks or copyrighted material.