Jaguar Land Rover tries to block Volkswagen Group imports to US

According to reports, JLR is claiming that SUVs from Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche and VW are using its patented Terrain Response system without permission.

By Will Trinkwon, Autocar UK calendar 24 Nov 2020 Views icon6886 Views Share - Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to LinkedIn Share to Whatsapp
Jaguar Land Rover tries to block Volkswagen Group imports to US

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has filed a complaint to the US International Trade Commission to ban imports of Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche and Volkswagen SUVs.

Claiming they are using its patented Terrain Response system without permission, JLR is seeking to prevent Audi’s Q8, Q7, Q5, A6 Allroad and E-trons and Lamborghini’s Urus from being imported into the US, according to Bloomberg. Porsche’s Cayenne and Volkswagen’s Tiguan range are also said to be in the firing line.

In the filing, JLR’s lawyer, Matthew Moore, said: “JLR seeks to protect itself and its United States operations from companies that have injected infringing products into the US market that incorporate, without any license from JLR, technology developed by JLR and protected by its patent.”

Autocar UK has contacted the Volkswagen Group for a statement.

Introduced in 2005, Terrain Response is JLR’s off-road driving management system, which allows cars such as the Land Rover Discovery, on whose Series 3 guise the technology made its debut, to adjust their driving settings for different conditions.

The current offering features five modes: sand, rock crawl, grass-gravel-snow, mud-ruts and general. When driving on sand, for example, Terrain Response increases engine and gearbox response and locks the centre differential to “maintain momentum on soft surfaces”.

The US filing is one of several recent legal moves from JLR as it seeks to protect its intellectual property, particularly on its flagship designs such as its Defender.

In 2019, the brand lost a trademark dispute case against Twisted Automotive, when JLR claimed that the name of that firm’s Yorkshire showroom, ‘LR Motors’, was too similar to ‘JLR’.

Earlier this year, JLR also went to court against Ineos Automotive. In this case, JLR attempted to trademark the shape of its old Defender 4x4 and to stymie Ineos’s similarly styled Grenadier. The courts ruled against JLR in this case.

RELATED ARTICLES
Volkswagen Group sells 465,500 BEVs worldwide in first-half 2025, up 47%

auther Autocar Professional Bureau calendar10 Jul 2025

With strong growth in Europe (+89%) and the USA (+24%), despite a sales decline in China (-34%), the VW Group’s global B...

Skoda begins sale of made-in-India CKD Kushaq in Vietnam

auther Autocar Professional Bureau calendar30 Jun 2025

Before production started, pre-series Kushaq vehicles covered over 330,000 kilometres on a variety of Vietnamese roads a...

Six Japanese companies join forces to expand use of recycled materials in new vehicles

auther Autocar Professional Bureau calendar30 Jun 2025

Denso, Toray Industries, Nomura Research Institute, Honda Motor, Matec Inc and Rever Corporation have set up the BlueReb...