Jaguar Land Rover threatens to sue National Rail over ‘ranger and rover' ticket names
The carmaker sent a cease and desist letter to the Rail Delivery Group, which operates the National Rail website, ordering it to stop referring to 'ranger and rover' train tickets on the site.
Lawyers for the Indian-owned carmaker claimed the use of the phrase 'ranger and rover' infringed its trademark on the name 'Range Rover'.
Train companies are now being told to change their websites to remove any mention of 'ranger and rover' unless it is phrased as 'ranger tickets and rover tickets'.
A Rail Delivery Group memo seen by The Telegraph, which was sent to train companies and ticket sellers, said Jaguar Land Rover had formally objected to the phrase 'ranger and rover'.
Rover tickets, which give unlimited train travel for seven days and are offered by many train companies, pre-date the Range Rover car by more than a decade.
The original All-Line Rail Rover ticket was introduced by British Rail in 1959 and priced at £15 for second-class travel.
This is equivalent to £304 today, according to Bank of England inflation figures, whereas a modern seven-day All Line Rover ticket is now priced at £650 for standard class travel.
Ranger tickets, which allow unlimited travel on one specific train company's services or within a certain geographical area, have been sold since the 1970s.
The first Range Rover was launched in 1970 by British Leyland, as the company's own website acknowledges.
According to the railway memo, Jaguar Land Rover has not objected to the branding of individual ranger and rover tickets. It said it was 'considering' writing to companies which use that phase.
The Rail Delivery Group, which is responsible for accrediting third-party train ticket sellers as well as updating the National Rail website, said it was now referring to the products as 'rover tickets and ranger tickets'.
The memo suggests all train companies' public-facing materials should be amended to 'rover tickets and ranger tickets', adding that Jaguar Land Rover has promised not to issue cease and desist letters to retailers which use these names.
A Rail Delivery Group spokesman said: 'We are confident that our practices have always complied with intellectual property law and were happy to work with Jaguar Land Rover towards a resolution.
'After being made aware of a trademark query by JLR, we worked closely with them to make a minor change to how we describe our Ranger tickets and Rover tickets.'
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