Ocado to be paid £200m by Norwegian rival after winning legal battle

Ocado wins ‘robot wars’!: Retail giant to be paid £200m by Norwegian rival after successfully fighting off claims it breached tech automation patents

• Ocado has settled a long-running dispute over robot patents with AutoStore 
• Norwegian company accused Ocado of using some of its patents in 2020 

Ocado is to be paid £200 million by a rival Norwegian company after winning a three-year long ‘robot wars’ legal battle. 

The retail giant, which licenses automated technology for supplying groceries, said it and AutoStore have settled their long-running dispute over robot patents.

It comes after the Norwegian company launched a legal battle in 2020 after it accused Ocado of using some of its patented robot technology and tried to protect six patents that it said the company had breached. 

A High Court judge ruled in March that AutoStore’s ‘patents were invalid’ as they had already been disclosed to another company years earlier and that, regardless, Ocado did not infringe them. 

Ocado said that AutoStore is to pay them £200 million in 24 monthly instalments starting this month, under a new settlement as both firms withdrew their actions against each other.

Ocado is to be paid £200 million by a rival Norwegian company after winning a three-year long ‘robot wars’ legal battle

The retail giant, which licenses automated technology for supplying groceries, said it and AutoStore have settled their long-running dispute over robot patents

Tim Steiner, Ocado Group chief executive, said: ‘I am pleased that we have worked together to resolve our differences and can now continue to focus on what we do best, innovating, developing and enabling partners to access world-beating technology.’

READ MORE: Ocado racks up a record half-year loss as boss admits disappointment over Marks & Spencer tie-up

Neill Abrams, group general counsel and company secretary, added: ‘I’m delighted that this litigation has now ended on satisfactory terms.’

The full terms of the settlement are confidential but Ocado said that both firms are allowed to continue to use and market their own existing products without challenge of infringement of the other’s post-2020 patents.

It added that AutoStore is not permitted to make or use a single-space cavity robot in any jurisdiction where Ocado has patent protection.

The deal also gives access to part of each party’s patent portfolio for them to use or develop their own products but this does not mean there will be collaboration, technology assistance or access to actual products.

When it first announced its claims, AutoStore said Ocado was using some of its patented robot technology.

Deals that the automated supermarket company had with Marks & Spencer and Morrisons and Kroger in the US infringed on the patents, AutoStore claimed.

The company had asked for the courts to ban Ocado from using the technology in future and was seeking compensation.

Ocado boss Tim Steiner (pictured with his partner Patrycja Pyka) said he was ‘pleased’ that the companies were able to resolve their differences

Both companies use automated machinery to collect and carry products around their warehouses.

Earlier this week, Steiner also admitted he was ‘disappointed’ about the performance of the tie-up with Marks & Spencer as the company crashed to its biggest ever half-year loss.

Speaking after the online supermarket reported a £289million loss for the six months to May 28, the Ocado boss said its joint venture with M&S was ‘not where we wanted it to be’.

Ocado faces the humiliating prospect of missing out on a near-£200million payment from M&S because targets agreed at the time of the tie-up may not be met.

The companies joined forces in 2019 to create Ocado Retail, a £750million 50-50 joint venture that gave Ocado customers access to M&S food.

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