Online supermarket and technology group Ocado, which this week became the most valuable retailer on Britain's stock market, is being sued by Norwegian robotics company AutoStore for allegedly infringing patents.
While Ocado's retail business has only a 1.7% share of Britain's grocery market, its state-of-the-art technology for robotically operated warehouses has spawned partnership deals with supermarket chains around the world, underpinning a stock market valuation of over £20 billion ($26 billion).
AutoStore said on Thursday it had filed patent infringement lawsuits in the United States and the United Kingdom. AutoStore said Ocado has been its customer since 2012.
The Allegation
AutoStore argues that its storage system and robots are the foundation on which the 'Ocado Smart Platform' (OSP) technology was built and on which Ocado’s business today is based, and seeks financial damages.
"Our ownership of the technology at the heart of Ocado’s warehousing system is clear," said AutoStore CEO and president Karl Johan Lier in a statement.
"We will not tolerate Ocado’s continued infringement of our intellectual property rights in its effort to boost its growth and attempt to transform itself into a global technology company," he added.
AutoStore, founded in 1996, is also seeking to bar Ocado and its partners from making and selling the products involved, and from importing them into the United States.
Ocado declined to give comment immediately.
Britain's Most Valuable Retailer
On Tuesday, Ocado overtook Tesco as Britain's most valuable retailer by market capitalisation.
Ocado, founded in 2000 by three former Goldman Sachs bankers, including CEO Tim Steiner, struggled for years to make a profit but has been transformed by partnership deals with supermarket groups including Kroger in the United States, Marks & Spencer and Morrisons in Britain, Casino in France and Aeon in Japan.
Ocado's deal with Kroger, inked in 2018, will see at least 20 automated warehouses built in the United States, with the first due to open in early 2021. The deal was seen as key in Kroger taking on Amazon.
