FILE PHOTO: “Bots” are seen on the grid of the “smart platform” at the Ocado CFC (Customer Fulfilment Centre) in Andover, Britain May 1, 2018. Picture taken May 1, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo
March 11, 2022
(Reuters) – Norwegian warehouse robot maker AutoStore on Thursday said it intends to appeal in U.S. court an International Trade Commission’s (ITC) decision last December, the latest salvo in an ongoing patent row with British rival Ocado Group.
The companies, both of which provide storage technology to the online shopping industry, have for years been locked in a series of legal battles over intellectual property (IP) rights.
AutoStore suffered a legal setback in the U.S. in a lawsuit of its own against Ocado last year.
In December, the ITC’s Chief Administrative Law Judge held three of the four AutoStore patents as invalid, while saying the fourth one was not infringed by Ocado. Another patent case between the two rivals is ongoing in Britain.
Ocado did not immediately respond to a comment on AutoStore’s latest action to appeal in the U.S. court.
AutoStore also said it will discontinue its appeal in the European Patent Office (EPO) in Germany “because that patent is no longer relevant to AutoStore’s UK infringement case.”
(Reporting by Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese, Bernard Orr)
