Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc has settled patent fights it lodged against Volkswagen AG and its brands over a feature used in luxury utility vehicles that simplifies off-road driving for affluent but inexperienced drivers.
The agreements resolve litigation in Germany and the U.S., but other terms of the deals weren’t disclosed in filings with courts in New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia and with the International Trade Commission in Washington.
The settlements came about a week before Jaguar Land Rover, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors Ltd., was to begin a trial in which it was seeking to block imports to the U.S. of VW’s Porsche, Lamborghini, Audi and Volkswagen utility vehicles that Land Rover claimed used its patented Terrain Response technology without permission.
The dispute was over an invention in which a simple turn of a knob instructs the vehicle systems to adapt to different terrains. It’s a key feature in Jaguar’s F-Pace and Land Rover Discovery vehicles. JLR’s Land Rover division, the original maker of rugged all-terrain vehicles, filed the complaints after super-luxury automakers began moving into the utility vehicle market.
A spokeswoman for VW group declined to comment, and a spokesman for Jaguar Land Rover had no immediate comment.