By IANS
Chennai : The Madras High Court has stayed the production of motorcycle brand “TVS Flame 125” while passing orders on a writ petition filed by a rival two-wheeler manufacturing major.
Granting an interim injunction Saturday, Justice P Jyothimani restrained TVS Motor Company from producing and marketing its latest motorcycle brand while hearing a plea by Bajaj Auto, which averred that its south India based rival had copied its Digital Twin Sparkplug Ignition (commercial name DTSi) technology under a different nomenclature.
A counter petition filed by TVS to prevent interference from Bajaj was also dismissed.
Both the companies had filed petitions alleging wrongdoing by the other on the issue of infringement of patent rights.
Different verdicts had been pronounced in the seesaw battle fought here and in the Supreme Court.
Eventually the Madras High Court stepped in at the behest of the Apex Court and ruled in favour of Bajaj, which had requested inclusion in the hearings through a series of caveats and subsequent stiff contests.
The litigation began in December last year.
The Pune based Bajaj claims that it uses a patented technology created out of its in-house R&D.
TVS sources said that it would prefer an appeal since its losses would be in the excess of Rs.250 crores (Rs.25 million) due to the interim verdict.
Justice Jyothimani was part of a Division Bench of the same court, which accorded a respite to Swiss pharmaceutical major Novartis on August 9 last year by restraining the Intellectual Property Appellate Board from adjudicating a matter that had been previously heard by the body.
A different Bench of the same court had rejected the multinational’s demand to prevent generic manufacture lifesaving drugs in India, but the First Bench comprising judges AP Shah and Jyothimani softened the blow.