New Delhi [India], December 7 : Mahindra said on Saturday it will contest brand rights of BE 6e against Indigo in the court. Meanwhile, the automaker will name its Electric Origin SUV as "BE 6".
Mahindra revealed its electric origin SUVs the BE 6e and XEV 9e on November 26.
Mahindra has applied for trademark registration under class 12 (vehicles) for "BE 6e" as a part of its electric origin SUV portfolio. Mahindra said that the mark "BE" is already registered with Mahindra in Class 12, and it stands for "born electric" platform underpinning the BE 6e.
InterGlobe Aviation Limited, the parent company of Indigo, has raised concerns with Mahindra using the name 6E.
Mahindra responded that its mark is "BE 6e" not the standalone "6E."
"We believe it differs fundamentally from IndiGo's "6E," which represents an airline, eliminating any risk of confusion. The distinct styling further emphasizes its uniqueness. Our registration application is for an entirely different industry sector and product and hence do not see any conflict," said Mahindra in a statement.
"In fact, we would like to point out that in the past, Tata Motors had objected to InterGlobe using the IndiGo mark, given their Tata Indigo car brand."
InterGlobe continues to use the mark IndiGo in a different industry and business.
"We therefore find their objection to BE 6e to be inconsistent with their own previous conduct," the Mahindra statement added.
Mahindra said its priority and focus is on ensuring an excellent experience for the customers as it takes product to the market. "We would not like to get distracted from our vision of popularising electric transport in India."
"We also find it unseemly that two large, Indian multinationals should engage in a distracting and unnecessary conflict when in fact we should be championing each other's growth and expansion."
Against that context, Mahindra decided to brand its new product the "BE 6".
It however does believe the claim by IndiGo is baseless and if "not challenged, will set an unhealthy precedent of monopolizing alpha-numeric 2-character marks, despite our mark being distinctive and different. This will be enormously constraining for all companies across industries and sectors."
Mahindra concluded that it will thus continue to strongly contest this in court and reserve the right to the brand name BE 6e.
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