We are heading towards interesting times in the near future. Two wheeler majors Bajaj Auto and TVS are about to enter a bitter war over patents. The story so far:

Bajaj made an engine with twin spark plugs and two valves. Its engineers exclaimed “Eureka!” and then promptly applied for a patent. Someone pointed out that two valve engines and twin spark heads have existed since Elvis. “Well they were big engines, ours is a small one,” claimed the Bajaj tech boffins and were awarded a patent.

“Ridiculous,” said the TVS tech team and promptly started working on their own twin plug bike motor. The result was unveiled last week in the form of the Flame, a 125cc which at least has set the rival Bajaj camp on fire.

“Holy beejesus, we will sue the crap out of them.” cried some of the top Bajaj guys, howling like an infant after its first polio booster shot. 

The retort from the TVS guys was equivocal and in the last two days, both rivals have made allegations against each other about stealing technologies and misrepresentation of facts. Since yesterday, both companies have issued press releases lambasting the rival. Everyone says that they are hurt and feel bad.

In the process, at least two law firms are richer and they don't feel too bad about it.

This crisis is unlikely to subside anytime soon as some major egos have already been hurt on both sides. For Bajaj, twin-spark, or Digital Twin Spark (DTS-i), as they call it makes a lot of money, nearly 60% of all they earn so if a rival peddles a product with a Digital Dual Spark (DDS-i) or any similar moniker, it's bad news.

On the technical front, my feeling is that Bajaj have a weak case. Patenting twin sparks is like, umm, patenting a 27-hole shower nozzle. Someone can easily drill another through it and claim another patent. It is always dangerous to adapt an existing technology and give it a twist to claim a patent because another Indi-genius may come around and give it another twist, showing you the middle finger.

If Bajaj has a painful rear end, they have themselves to blame.