Jaguar Land Rover ends patent row with Volkswagen
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has settled its patent dispute with Volkswagen and its brands, resolving US litigation over technology used in luxury sport vehicles.
The settlements came about a week before JLR, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, was due to begin a trial over the patented tech it argued had been infringed by Porsche AG, Porsche Cars North America, Automobili Lamborghini, Volkswagen AG, Volkswagen Group of America, and Audi. All of these companies are subsidiaries of German-based Volkswagen AG.
In November 2020, Jaguar filed a complaint alleging patent infringement at the US International Trade Commission, seeking a US import ban on VW vehicles including Porsche, Lamborghini, Audi and Volkswagen.
According to the JLR, its competitors infringed its patented “Terrain Response” system, US number RE46,828, which helps inexperienced drivers in navigating off-road terrains.
JLR also sued its rival at the US District Court of the District of Delaware, and the US District Court of the District of New Jersey.
According to JLR, its patented system improved on earlier driving-mode systems, because its “technology provides for a broad range of multiple off-road driving surface modes, and controls the operational arrangement of multiple subsystems depending on the selected surface”.
It further noted that this patented technology had been included as a standard feature across several JLR vehicles since 2008, including the Land Rover Discovery Sport, Land Rover Discovery, Land Rover Defender, Range Rover Evoque, Range Rover Velar, Range Rover Sport, and Range Rover.
The full terms of this week’s settlement weren’t disclosed in filings with courts in New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia and with the International Trade Commission in Washington.
WIPR has approached the companies for comment.
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