Supreme Court urges Matrimony.com, Jodi365 to tie the knot and settle

The Supreme Court on Friday expressed its disinclination to entertain a plea filed by Matrimony.com challenging a Madras High Court judgment restraining it from using ‘Jodii’ for its matchmaking application [Matrimony.com Limited v FreeElective Network Private Limited]..However, instead of dismissing the plea today, a Bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe gave Matrimony.com and Jodi365 an opportunity to explore an amicable resolution.Matrimony.com offered to rename its application “Jodi Matrimony” to avoid abruptly shutting down the business and affecting its existing users. The Bench asked the parties to discuss this proposal and indicated that it would consider the matter again if they were unable to arrive at a settlement..The dispute arose after Matrimony.com launched its ‘Jodii’ mobile application in October 2021. FreeElective Network Private Limited, which operates the matchmaking platform Jodi365, issued a cease-and-desist notice against this move. It subsequently filed a trademark infringement and passing-off suit before the Madras High Court against Matrimony.com.FreeElective claimed that it had been using ‘Jodi365’ since 2009 and had registered it as a composite device mark in 2010. It alleged that Matrimony.com’s adoption of the phonetically similar ‘Jodii’ for identical services was likely to confuse consumers.Matrimony.com countered that FreeElective's trademark registration protected only the composite ‘Jodi365’ mark and did not give FreeElective exclusive rights over the word ‘Jodi’. It argued that ‘Jodi’, meaning a couple or pair, was descriptive of matchmaking services and was widely used by other matrimonial and dating platforms.In July 2022, a single judge of the Madras High Court dismissed FreeElective’s suit. The judge found that while the composite ‘Jodi365’ mark had acquired distinctiveness, the constituent word ‘Jodi’ remained descriptive and non-distinctive.A High Court Division Bench of Justices P Velmurugan and K Govindarajan Thilakavadi, however, overturned the single-judge ruling on August 11, 2026.The High Court consequently restrained Matrimony.com from infringing the ‘Jodi365’ trademark or passing off its services by using ‘Jodii’ or any other deceptively similar mark. It also directed the company to surrender materials bearing the infringing mark for destruction.Matrimony.com challenged this ruling before the Supreme Court..Its counsel, Senior Advocate Amit Sibal argued that FreeElective did not have a trademark registration under Class 45, which covers matrimonial and matchmaking services. Its registration covered Classes 35, 38 and 41, relating to advertising, telecommunications and education services.Matrimony.com also contended that ‘Jodi’ means a couple or pair in several Indian languages and, being descriptive of matchmaking, could not be monopolised. It pointed to several third-party websites and applications using variants of the expression.The company further told the Court that it would not press its pending application to register ‘Jodi’ as a standalone trademark.Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for FreeElective, opposed the plea, stressing that it had used ‘Jodi365’ continuously since 2009 and had approached the High Court within months of Matrimony.com launching ‘Jodii’. He also relied on instances of alleged consumer confusion that were placed before the High Court..The Supreme Court today expressed that there did not appear to be any need to interfere with the High Court's ruling on the issue. It suggested that the parties settle their disputes out of court. Sibal then told the court that a settlement would not be possible if the Court dismissed Matrimony.com's plea. Thus, the Court agreed to keep the plea pending for the parties to explore a settlement. .Senior Advocate Chander M Lall also appeared for Matrimony.com. .Sankaranarayanan was briefed by Advocates R Sathish Kumar and Sujoy Chatterjee..[Read Order]