Bombay High Court Grants Interim Relief To 'JIO'; Restrains Taxi Operator From Using 'JIO Taxi' Mark
The Bombay High Court has barred a Jharkhand-based taxi operator from using the name “JIO TAXI” after finding that it prima facie infringes Reliance Industries Ltd.'s well-known “JIO” trademark. A single bench of Justice Sharmila U Deshmukh passed the order on November 24, 2025, granting an ad-interim injunction in Reliance's favour. The restriction will remain in force until...
The Bombay High Court has barred a Jharkhand-based taxi operator from using the name “JIO TAXI” after finding that it prima facie infringes Reliance Industries Ltd.'s well-known “JIO” trademark.
A single bench of Justice Sharmila U Deshmukh passed the order on November 24, 2025, granting an ad-interim injunction in Reliance's favour. The restriction will remain in force until December 16, 2025
Reliance told the court that it owns the “JIO” trademark and its variants, with registrations going back to 2011. It said it also has a 2012 registration in Class 39 that covers transport-related services. The company explained that the “JIO” brand is central to several of its businesses, including telecom, the e-commerce platform Ajio.com, the grocery platform JioMart and many group companies that use “JIO” in their corporate and domain names.
Reliance said it discovered in April 2025 that the operator was running taxi and car-rental services under the name “JIO TAXI” through the website jiotaxicab.com. It also said the operator had tried to register the mark “JIO TAXI” in 2020 but the Trade Marks Registry rejected the application because of Reliance's prior rights.
The court noted that Reliance had placed sufficient material on record to show its rights over the “JIO” mark. It observed that the name “JIO TAXI” contains the registered mark in its entirety and that the operator had no real defence, particularly since its own application had already been refused for the same reason.
Consequently, the Court ruled that Reliance had established a strong prima facie case for grant of ad-interim relief and restrained the taxi operator, until the next date of hearing, from using the name “JIO TAXI,” the domain name 'jiotaxicab.com' or any identical or deceptively similar mark for taxi or car-rental services that could amount to infringement or passing off. The Court also directed the domain registrar to disclose details of the registrant and to suspend the account relating to the disputed domain name.
The matter will be heard next on December 16, 2025.
Case Title: Reliance Industries Limited v. Abhay Kumar and Another
Case Number: IA (L) NO. 35071/ 2025 IN COMMERCIAL IP SUIT NO. 662/ 2025
For Plaintiff: Advocates Vinod Bhagat, Prachi Shah, Twisha Singh, Sonam Pradhan, Rashmi Thakur