SC refuses to stay TVS Flame sale

A division bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to issue a stay order on the sale of TVS Motor Company's 125cc TVS Flame motorcycles while considering a special leave petition filed by Bajaj Auto (BAL) against the Chennai-based company.

In doing so, the SC bench presided over by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice Ravindran and Justice Panchal, upheld the order of a single judge bench of the Madras High Court on December 20 last year, permitting TVS to go ahead with the manufacturing and sale of the motorcycle.

In its judgement, the SC bench observed that Bajaj Auto's appeal against the order of the single judge of the Madras High Court permitting sales of the vehicle was not backed by any reasons and refused to pass an interim order favouring Bajaj.

TVS was represented in court by K Parasaran, Mukul Rohtagi and Dushyant Dave, among others. C A Sundaram appeared for BAL.

According to Bajaj Auto, the launch of Flame last month by TVS was an infringement of its Patent No 195904 granted to it in 2005.

The invention related to the use of twin spark plugs for efficient combustion of air-fuel mixture in small bore internal combustion engines, working on the four-stroke principle.

TVS responded that the vehicle was protected by a licence granted by its registered patent holder AVL List, TVS's Austrian partner and technology collaborator.

TVS Motor has contended that TVS Flame is a new version based on its own innovation and does not in anyway relate to any bike produced by BAL.

The Chennai-based automotive major also applied to the Indian Patent Appellate Board for revocation of patent granted to BAL. The case is pending a decision. The court has listed the case for the next hearing on January 18.