April 18, 2005 9:00 AM, EDT

ArvinMeritor Says Eaton’s Patent Suit Limited in Scope

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rvinMeritor said that an April 7 International Trade Commission order based on a complaint by Eaton Corp. against was limited to patent infringements related to automated mechanical transmissions.

The ITC had determined that ArvinMeritor, ZF Friedrichshafen and a joint business between the two called ZF Meritor LLC infringed on an Eaton transmission patent. (Click here for previous coverage.)

One part of the patent, known as Claim 15, “pertains to a non-critical aspect of the

ransmission, which is not integral to its operation,” said Tom Gosnell, president of ArvinMeritor’s commercial vehicle systems division.

“In anticipation of this expected order . . . ZF redesigned the transmission software to comply with the ruling," he said.

Eaton spokesman Gary Klasen told Transport Topics Monday the company had no further comment on the decision. "We thought our initial release said it all," he said.

Wolfgang Vogel, executive vice president with ZF, said the “minor redesign — which has no effect on the functionality of the ZF-FreedomLine transmission — is in accordance with the ruling. We clearly understand the ITC ruling and will not import, market or sell any products that violate the ruling.”

"We are pleased that the redesigned software will permit us to continue to offer the ZF-FreedomLine in North America," said Dennis Kline, vice president of ArvinMeritor’s global truck sales.

ArvinMeritor filed a patent-infringement lawsuit last August in U.S. Federal Court against Eaton for infringement of its patent covering torque prediction. ArvinMeritor said in its statement that it believes that this patent is infringed by every Eaton automated manual transmission.