SC allows TVS to manufacture `Flame', bars from marketing it

09 June 2009

The Supreme Court has allowed two-wheeler maker TVS Motor Company Ltd to manufacture the controversial `TVS Flame', a 125-cc bike sporting twin-spark plugs, the technology for which Bajaj Auto claims to hold the patent rights.

A bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice B Sudershan Reddy allowed Chennai-based TVS Motor to manufacture the bike, but it sought an undertaking from the company that it won't move the finished product (motorcycle) from its warehouse.

The court, while issuing notice to the Chennai-based company and allowing it to manufacture TVS Flame, said "no finished product would leave the respondent's warehouse."

The SC posted the matter for the next hearing in the first week in August and warned both TVS and Bajaj Auto against using the order or part thereof for any other purpose, including publicity.

"Both parties are restrained from using this order for any other purposes including publicity," the bench said.

The SC order came on a petition filed by Bajaj Auto challenging a Madras High Court's ruling that permitted TVS Motor to use twin-spark plugs in its motorcycles.