The Mahindra BE 6e landed in hot water even before it hit the road over its name. Interglobe Aviation’s IndiGo uses the IATA call-sign 6E, which is the same as BE 6e, except for the small ‘e’ in its name. Now IndiGo filed a lawsuit against MEAL in Delhi High Court, which prompted the company to change the name of the electric coupe SUV from BE 6e to BE 6. However, Mahindra has released a statement wherein it says that it will contest the same in court.
Also Read: IndiGo vs Mahindra: The Battle Of 6e ExplainedÂ
Here is the statement from Mahindra in its entirety.
“Mahindra has applied for trademark registration under class 12 (vehicles) for “BE 6e” as a part of its electric origin SUV portfolio. The mark “BE” is already registered with Mahindra in Class 12, and it stands for our “born electric” platform underpinning the BE 6e.
InterGlobe Aviation Limited has raised concerns with Mahindra using the name 6E. Mahindra’s 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.
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.
Our priority and focus is on ensuring an excellent experience for our customers as we take our 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.
We are hence taking the decision to brand our product the “BE 6”.
We however do believe the claim by IndiGo is baseless and if not challenged, will set an unhealthy precedent of monopolising alpha-numeric 2-character marks, despite our mark being distinctive and different. This will be enormously constraining for all companies across industries and sectors.
We will thus continue to strongly contest this in court and reserve our right to the brand name BE 6e.”
