NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Mahindra and Mahindra said on Saturday it would rename its latest electric car, a significant move after aviation market leader IndiGo sued the automaker for use of its call sign and widely used brand name "6E".
While trademark infringement cases are common in India, legal disputes between big publicly traded companies have been rare. IndiGo, India's biggest airline, sued Mahindra in the Delhi High Court last week for trademark infringement over the use of "6E" in branding Mahindra's latest electric vehicle as "BE 6e".
Mahindra will rename the car "BE 6" but "the claim by IndiGo is baseless" and it will challenge it during court proceedings, the automaker said in a statement.
"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," Mahindra said.
IndiGo, which has a 60% share of India's domestic aviation sector, has used "6E" across all its branding for years, including its co-branded credit cards and in-flight magazine.