RouteOne LLC, the joint venture formed by DaimlerChrysler Services, Ford Motor Credit Co., General Motors Acceptance Corp. and Toyota Financial Services to create a more streamlined credit application process for automobile dealers and their customers, responded Jan. 29 upon learning that DealerTrack, Inc., has filed a lawsuit accusing RouteOne of patent infringement.

“We are surprised by the appearance of this lawsuit at this time because DealerTrack has known of our business plans since early 2002,”said Mike Jurecki, CEO of RouteOne. “We do not believe this lawsuit has any merit. We have previously researched the patents, and we do not infringe. We are confident that we will prevail.

“It has not escaped our notice that this suit was filed on the eve of the NADA national convention,” Jurecki said. “In light of DealerTrack’s long silence on this issue, we believe the filing and timing of this suit are designed to disrupt the RouteOne business.

“We reiterate that we believe the lawsuit is without merit, and we remain fully committed to our national rollout schedule and our plans to integrate with the Dealer Services Providers,” Jurecki said. “We do not expect our customers and prospective customers will be affected in any way by this litigation.”