Royal Enfield Sued In The US Over Alleged Patent Infringement

Patents are a delicate and finicky subject to touch on. There’s a reason companies pay hefty amounts of money in documents, filings, and R&D to come up with proprietary ideas and technologies and protect them. I’m not sure how it goes in India, however, here in the US, they’re taken very seriously and infringement is a serious offence. It looks like Royal Enfield might have crossed a line and is getting sued over an alleged infringement.

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An Indian company sued by another Indian company on American turf. That’s a little dizzying. Electric component manufacturer Flash Electronics India has filed a lawsuit against Royal Enfield in the United States over a patent infringement in the design of a component the motorcycle maker uses on its USand European-sold bikes.

The patented component referred to as a “Regulator Rectifier Device and Method for Regulating an Output Voltage of the Same” is at the center of the legal dispute. Simply put, the component is a regulator that converts AC into DC to charge the batteries and power the motorcycle’s electric components and systems.

While claiming it hasn’t received any formal documents yet regarding a lawsuit, Royal Enfield commented that the part has been sourced from a reliable and trusted supplier.

Despite Enfield claiming its supplier owns the IP rights to the component, founder and managing director of Flash Electronics India Sanjeev Vasdev doesn’t buy it. He told Business Standard “They (Royal Enfield) have taken some of our regulators and it has been copied blindly by another manufacturer (Varroc). So, I would say, Royal Enfield has got into this knowingly.” Vasdev adds that Royal Enfield was warned in October 2018 of the infringement and that despite guaranteeing it would stop, has seemingly not kept its word. Supplier Varroc declined to comment on the matter. Yeesh.

The motorcycle maker promised it would look into the documents and the local laws where the lawsuit have been filed to figure out what this is all about. Flash Electronics holds the patent to the technology in a number of European countries as well, which could lead to additional lawsuits.

Source: Business Standard