Ocado facing USITC probe over robot-operated warehouses
British online supermarket Ocado is under investigation for patent infringement in the US, following a complaint from a Norwegian robotics company.
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) announced yesterday, November 2, that it had begun an investigation into whether Ocado infringed five patents covering automated storage and warehouse robots.
Ocado operates an online supermarket business in the UK, delivering orders to customers directly from its warehouses.
The company also supplies its Ocado Smart Platform (OPS), the technology underpinning its automated and robotically-operated warehouses, to supermarkets in the UK and around the world.
AutoStore Technologies claims the OPS infringes its own proprietary automated storage technology. The claims were first made in complaints filed in October at the English High Court and the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The Norwegian company alleges that Ocado purchased one of its systems in 2012, before copying key features to develop the OPS.
The OPS is among the most valuable parts of Ocado’s business, with AutoStore claiming that the UK company supplied the system to US supermarket Kroger at 20 sites at a price of $55 million each.
AutoStore’s complaint at the ITC was filed alongside the US and UK lawsuits, with the trade body confirming yesterday that it would investigate AutoStore’s claims.
The ITC has the power to investigate companies’ liability for infringing US patents, and ban infringing products from being imported into the country.
“Our ownership of the technology at the heart of Ocado’s warehousing system is clear,” said Karl Johan Lier, CEO and president of AutoStore, last month.
“We will not tolerate Ocado’s continued infringement of our IP rights in its effort to boost its growth and attempt to transform itself into a global technology company,” Lier added.
The Norwegian company is seeking an import ban at the ITC, as well as an injunction and financial damages in the US and English courts.
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