Antonov is named after Frenchman Roumen Antonov, who patented automotive transmissions. The company has licensed its patents to several auto makers, including Honda and British Rover.

Antonov is targeting Toyota's Prius gas/electric hybrid, as well as the Lexus transmission, and is not alone. Solomon Technologies filed a complaint in January with the U.S. International Trade Commission against Toyota for infringing its patent on electricity generation in hybrid transmissions, after filing a lawsuit in April last year, which has stalled due to Solomon not having the scratch for the battle; patents being the "sport of kings," and all that.

In response to Antonov's suit filed last April, Toyota and Antonov chatted a bit, Antonov later claiming that Toyota was lowballing them, so, to stoke the fire, Toyota countered with a suit in Munich to invalidate a target Antonov patent. Toyota has now thrown another punch with a countersuit in Tokyo. Antonov has publicly whined about the Tokyo suit: "Antonov believes that Toyota's action in Japan indicates its apparent lack of confidence with regards to winning the German court judgment. As a result, Toyota is attempting to force Antonov to incur significant costs via the courts in Japan even though the patent system there is equivalent to that in Europe."

The Toyota Prius, launched in Tokyo in 1997, has been a harbinger of the automotive technology trend to minimize gas guzzling. Toyota expects to sell up to 400,000 hybrids this year.

In trying to dodge patent bullets, and ultimately facing an unbearable injunction, Toyota is following the common course of deep-pocket infringers: lowball & bully, take the legal action far enough to find out how the cards will play out, then settle.