Land Rover was among the first automakers to forge a path in the highly profitable market for luxury sport utility vehicles, simplifying the technology for affluent but inexperienced off-road drivers.
But the foreign-made rivals in the British company’s rearview mirror have grown closer than they might appear.
On Thursday, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc asked a U.S. trade agency to block imports of Volkswagen Group’s Porsche, Lamborghini, Audi and Volkswagen SUVs it says are using its patented Terrain Response system without permission.
Jaguar Land Rover, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors Ltd., said in a filing with the U.S. International Trade Commission that the technology helps negotiate a “broad range of surfaces” and is a key feature in Jaguar’s F-Pace and Land Rover Discovery vehicles.
“JLR seeks to protect itself and its United States operations from companies that have injected infringing products into the U.S. market that incorporate, without any license from JLR, technology developed by JLR and protected by its patent,” Land Rover’s lawyer, Matthew Moore of Latham & Watkins, said in the filing.
A spokesman for Volkswagen declined to comment on ongoing litigation.
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