Ocado has called German police on picking robot rival Brightpick after alleging the company has infringed one of its patents.
According to Brightpick’s CEO Jan Zizka, Ocado representatives turned up with police officers to the company’s booth at the LogiMAT trade show in Stuttgart on Tuesday to enforce an injunction relating to Brightpick’s newly launched Gridpicker solution.
Officers found nothing in breach of the injunction, which had been issued by the Regional Court of Düsseldorf that morning, Brightpick having put up screens reading “So good they don’t want you to see it” and “Why so afraid?” around the booth.
Ocado confirmed it had been granted an injunction, sought after it became aware of a potential patent infringement in the last few days.
It is understood Ocado is trying to engage with Brightpick to resolve the infringement issue directly in the coming weeks.
“We believe Ocado’s allegations are spurious and intend to challenge the claims to the fullest extent,” said Zizka.
“This is an interim measure, not a final decision. The order applies to Germany only. We remain fully committed to our customers and to bringing Gridpicker to market globally.”
Brightpick unveiled Gridpicker last week, claiming the grid-based robotic picking tech set “a new standard for warehouse automation”.
It is “a multi-purpose robot built to automate a wide range of warehouse workflows, from picking and replenishment to sortation and buffering”, the company says, which “moves seamlessly between tasks and workstations, working like a human – but faster, more consistent, and without breaks”.
Brightpick said that multiple customers have already ordered Gridpicker, with first installations scheduled for later this year.
Of the injunction, Zizka said: “This is how you know you launched something truly disruptive.”
Ocado has close to 4,000 patents filed and granted across its range of technology and solutions. In 2023, it ended a three-year patent dispute with warehouse robotics rival AutoStore after agreeing a “complete settlement of all claims” in their global legal wranglings, so “avoiding further litigation and associated costs”. AutoStore paid Ocado Group £200m over two years to settle the dispute.
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