Ocado hit with another robotic patent action
Norwegian robotics company AutoStore Technology has filed another lawsuit against Ocado, seeking ownership of some of the British online supermarket’s patents.
In an action before the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO), announced yesterday, November 9, AutoStore claimed that it is the inventor and rightful owner of patents related to the Ocado Smart Platform (the technology underpinning its automated and robotically-operated warehouses).
Last month, WIPR reported that AutoStore had filed complaints against Ocado at the US International Trade Commission (ITC), the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and the English High Court.
Earlier in November, the ITC announced that it had begun an investigation into whether Ocado infringed five patents covering automated storage and warehouse robots.
In the latest claim, AutoStore alleged that Ocado’s patent filings included substantial technical information, know-how and materials relating to robotic technology, which AutoStore had provided to Ocado in good faith in a series of interactions.
These interactions allegedly included AutoStore allowing Ocado executives and engineers to inspect an AutoStore system, and making certain software and hardware available to Ocado to enable the supermarket to simulate the operation of an AutoStore system and perform factory testing.
AutoStore also said it had provided training days in the operation of AutoStore’s system.
According to the Norwegian company, Ocado purchased one of its systems in 2012, before copying key features to develop the Ocado Smart Platform.
The patents at issue have been filed by Ocado since 2014 and relate to optimising the placement of product within an automated storage/retrieval system, and to certain safety features in such systems for bringing the robots to a halt.
The relevant patents have been granted in the UK in 2018 and 2019, but are still pending patent applications in Europe.
AutoStore is seeking an order affirming that it is the true owner of the patents and for assignment of the patents. It also wants the IPO to declare that none of the Ocado personnel named as inventors within the patents were in fact the inventor or have the right to be named as such.
Karl Johan Lier, CEO of AutoStore, said: “Ocado took advantage of being our customer and having access to AutoStore’s market-leading technology and then attempted to assert ownership over what it had learned from AutoStore by filing its own patents.
“In addition to the action we’ve already taken to protect and assert our existing patents, this action will establish that AutoStore invented these technologies and should therefore be recognised as the rightful owner of Ocado’s corresponding patents.”
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