ArvinMeritor claims Eaton auto transmissions infringe patents

TROY, Mich., (Aug. 31, 2004) — Trucking component supplier ArvinMeritor has filed a lawsuit in Charlotte, N.C. Federal Court against Eaton Corp. for infringement over a transmission patent.

ArvinMeritor is seeking an injunction to stop the sale of Eaton’s automated UltraShift and AutoShift transmissions. ArvinMeritor claims the products use technology that is covered by a patent first developed for ArvinMeritor’s former Engine Synchro Shift (ESS) heavy-truck transmission — a model that has since been superceded by higher technology.

The two companies have been trading patent infringement accusations for several years. Last year ArvinMeritor won an appeal in a patent infringement suit brought by Eaton against ZF Meritor’s ESS transmission system. The Federal Court of Appeals reversed a U.S. District Court ruling two years prior.

ArvinMeritor is also defending itself against another Eaton claim charging that ZF Meritor’s clutchless, automatic FreedomLine transmission system and components infringe on various Eaton patents. The International Trade Commission will begin hearing this case on Thursday.

ZF Meritor is a joint venture of ArvinMeritor and Germany’s ZF Friedrichshafen. The FreedomLine is the U.S. version of ZF Freidrichshafen’s ZF-AS Tronic used in Europe. It competes here with the Eaton Fuller AutoShift and UltraShift automated transmissions.

“We now understand why Eaton has aggressively used the Patent and Trademark Office to obtain rights to an ArvinMeritor patent,” Tom Gosnell, president of ArvinMeritor’s Commercial Vehicle Systems business group, said in a press release. “Our company has brought real innovation to heavy-duty truck transmissions. As a technology pioneer, we developed and brought the first affordable transmission automation system to customers.

“This is an extremely broad patent,” Gosnell continued. “We believe that all of Eaton’s automated manual transmissions infringe on it. While we welcome fair competition in the marketplace, we refuse to compete against our own patented technology advancements.”

Eaton responded by saying ArvinMeritor’s lawsuit is “without foundation.”

“We firmly believe that ArvinMeritor’s transmission automation technology patent is invalid and that Eaton’s UltraShift and AutoShift technologies do not infringe upon it,” the company said in a release yesterday.