WASHINGTON — The U.S. Worldwide Commerce Fee (ITC) mentioned on Monday it’s opening in investigation into whether or not Volkswagen Group infringed on patents held by Jaguar Land Rover for a system used for off-road driving.

In November, Jaguar Land Rover filed a grievance with the ITC looking for to prevent the import of some VW, Porsche, Lamborghini and Audi fashions with “sure automobile management programs” that allegedly infringe on its patents.

The fashions embrace the Lamborghini Urus, Porsche Cayenne and Audi’s Q8, Q7, Q5, A6 Allroad, and e-tron autos and the VW Tiguan. The ITC mentioned it has made no determination on the deserves.

VW mentioned in a press release it was inspecting the motion and figuring out its subsequent steps.

“We’ll after all cooperate with investigating authorities. Whereas we can not touch upon any particulars of the proceedings, we strongly consider that the claims don’t have any benefit and can robustly defend our place,” VW mentioned.

Jaguar Land Rover mentioned the autos “have used JLR’s patented innovations with out cost or permission” notably a patent for an “improved system for driving a automobile on totally different driving surfaces, particularly off-road.”

JLR says its Terrain Response expertise makes use of the patented expertise to maximise efficiency on off-road driving surfaces, together with grass, snow, mud, sand and rocks.