When India’s two leading motorcycle makers, Bajaj Auto and TVS Motors, compete with each other, the consumer benefits. But when they get drawn into a battle of words the country’s pride takes a beating.
Featuring among the top three in this high volume segment, that includes Hero Honda (an Indo-Japanese joint-venture), one remarkable thing about Bajaj and TVS is that they are both wholly Indian owned. I am sure this is something which makes every Indian proud and so it came as a surprise when, in the first week of September, soon after TVS showcased its Flame motorcycle, a Bajaj Auto official got quoted in the media saying that his company would sue TVS for infringing on its DTSi (digital twin spark injection technology) know-how which allegedly had been replicated in the new bike by TVS. TVS countered this by saying that it had not copied but developed its own CCVTi (controlled combustion variable timing intelligent) engine with help from AVL. A series of claims and counter-claims were exchanged in the media primarily pertaining to the issue of patent.
The thought uppermost on my mind was that Bajaj Auto should not have jumped the gun and run into the media's arms with its allegation. The topmost persons at the helm of both the companies are certainly not strangers to each other and could possibly be members of common trade bodies and definitely a part of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Someone at Bajaj could have picked up the phone and cut across anger to speak with a top functionary of TVS or, as one of its roles should be, to ask a common trade body to mediate on the issue about which it was so peeved!
Blessed are those who are peacemakers and, to his credit, that is what Hero Honda's Brijmohan Lal tried to do by bringing Rajiv Bajaj and TVS' Venu Srinivasan together, to at least pose with him for a photo opportunity at the recently-held conference of SIAM, and thereby signaling that peace could be achieved even though through mediation!
Further, TVS' statement clarifying that Bajaj's patent was for something altogether different, made one wonder how much knowledge on IPR in general, or access to information on patents in particular, companies have in India, while on the other hand competitors amass product knowledge by stripping each other's products after they have been launched.
The series of acrimonious exchanges between the companies in the media, I am sorry to say, have not only hurt the image of both companies but may have contributed effectively for many of the world's leading copycat countries to laugh at us.
There have been several instances of Chinese companies that have been taken to court for IPR infringement and Bajaj had itself rightly initiated legal action against a Chinese company sometime ago. However, have we ever read or know about a Chinese company suing another Chinese entity for IPR infringement? We keep doing a SWOT analysis between India and China but do we realise that one among the many areas the Chinese are ahead of us is in their sense of a common purpose arising from deeper nationalistic sentiment that cements greater unity among its people.
I think if there is one area where India can lead over China then it in transparency and that is what most overseas businesses would like us to believe when inevitably a question is raised on how they compare doing business with both countries. Indian companies should leverage on this asset in many ways and with one of them being a clear understanding of IPR issues and amassing information on who holds what IPR. Just like the sensitivity of having HR or corporate communications departments within an enterprise is increasing, companies will need to realise the value of investing in the creation of an IPR department.
This department besides playing other specific roles could also become an important instrument for preventing occurrences of friction, as the one recently seen between Bajaj and TVS, and also strengthen India’s image of respecting not just its own but also what others possess.
(Published in Autocar Professional magazine)
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