Bajaj Auto to move SC on TVS issue

Just over a week after the Madras High Court granted the Chennai-based two-wheeler company TVS Motor the permission to use twin-spark plugs in its motorcycles, Bajaj Auto has decided to move the Supreme Court against the ruling.

The High Court’s ruling had come as a big relief for TVS Motor, which was restricted by an earlier verdict from the same court that did not allow the company to produce or sell the disputed motorcycle Flame, a 125cc bike sporting twin-spark plugs, as Bajaj Auto held patent rights for the same.

Bajaj Auto today filed a separate petition in the Madras High Court asking it to put a stay on its earlier ruling. However, the court stated that this would come up for hearing only after two weeks.

The HC had earlier observed that there was a difference between the three-valve engine configuration of TVS Motor Company and the two-valve configuration of Bajaj Auto Limited employed in the twin-spark plug engine.

“The combustion process of TVS Motor Company was not exclusively based on the twin-plug operation but was based on the three-valve configuration patented by M/s AVL GMBH of Austria, licensed to TVS Motor Company to use its technology,” stated the HC.

The division bench, headed by Justice S J Mukhopadhyaya and Hon Justice F M Ibrahim Kalifulla, held that merely because prima facie Bajaj Auto Limited was having a valid patent, that by itself would not mean that Bajaj Auto had made out a strong prima facie case of infringement against the TVS Motor Company.

The bench further held that prima facie the product manufactured by TVS Motor has a distinctive feature, which is different from that of Bajaj’s patent. Accordingly, the division bench set aside the order of the single judge and discontinued the injunction granted by him.

TVS Motor, which has come perilously close to Bajaj’s sales tally following massive erosion in demand for Bajaj models in the past few months, has been asserting that its product in no way infringes on the technology of Bajaj Auto.

In February last year, the Madras High Court restrained TVS Motor from manufacturing, marketing and selling its 125cc motorcycle TVS Flame after Bajaj Auto alleged the bike used twin-spark plugs for combustion, a patented technology of Bajaj Auto.

The order came after a petition was filed by Bajaj Auto seeking to restrain TVS Motor from manufacturing and selling the Flame motorcycle.