AutoStore to appeal London high court loss to Ocado in patent feud
29/06/2023 17:01
LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) - Norwegian robotics firm
AutoStore AUTO.OL said on Thursday it will appeal a London
high court judgement in March which dismissed its patent
infringement claims against British online supermarket and
technology group Ocado OCDO.L .
The two pioneers in warehouse storage technology have faced
off in multiple jurisdictions around the world to protect their
intellectual property. Ocado, like AutoStore, licences its
technology to retailers around the world and uses it for its
British grocery delivery service.
Judge Richard Hacon ruled in March that Oslo-listed
AutoStore's patents in the case were invalid and, in any event,
London-listed Ocado did not infringe them.
He issued his formal order on Thursday, but allowed
AutoStore to appeal.
"We can confirm AutoStore has today been granted permission
to appeal the High Court decision in March 2023 regarding our UK
case against Ocado for patent infringement and we will now
pursue that appeal," an AutoStore spokesperson said.
Judge Hacon also ordered AutoStore to pay Ocado 6.7 million
pounds ($8.5 million) in costs in relation to the high court
trial. Final payments will, however, be subject to the outcome
of the appeal.
"We have been consistent from the outset of the dispute,
that we do not infringe any valid AutoStore rights in the UK or
elsewhere," said an Ocado spokesperson.
"We are glad that the appropriately high costs order in
this case reflects the extent to which we were successful
at trial, and the time wasted on the number of issues abandoned
by AutoStore shortly before trial."
Shares in Ocado surged as much as 47% last Thursday after
the Times newspaper reported possible takeover interest from
Amazon.com Inc. The stock has fallen since.
($1 = 0.7928 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Richard Chang)
((james.davey@thomsonreuters.com))