MOLINE, Ill. — Deere & Co. filed a lawsuit Friday claiming two companies infringed on around a dozen John Deere patents.

In the lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in Delaware, Deere claims Precision Planting and AGCO Corp. made or sold products, such as vSet seed meters and SpeedTube products, that infringe on its patents, according to a news release. AGCO acquired Precision Planting last fall.

The company claims it suffered damages because of the infringement and will continue to suffer damages if it continues.

"The Deere patents relate to several of the unique and inventive aspects of John Deere planting equipment, many of which embodied in the state-of-the-art technology Deere has named ExactEmerge," Deere spokesman Ken Golden said in a news release. "The inventions protected by Deere's patents allow farmers to achieve accurate seed placement, uniform seed spacing and even crop emergence while planting at higher speeds than had been possible in the past."

In a news release, he said Deere has not licensed or authorized the use of its patents by Precision Planting or AGCO.