Ocado to be paid £200m in deal to settle robot patent case

Ocado is to be paid £200 million in a deal with Norwegian company AutoStore which accused it of breaching patents.

In a joint statement released on Saturday, Ocado Group, the automated supermarket company, and AutoStore said they have settled their long-running dispute over robot patents.

A High Court judge ruled in March that AutoStore’s “patents were invalid” and that, regardless, Ocado did not infringe them.

In 2020, AutoStore tried to protect six patents that it said Ocado had breached, and launched a legal battle.

AutoStore is to pay Ocado £200 million in 24 monthly instalments starting in July 2023 under the new settlement.

The statement, which was released by both companies, announces that they are withdrawing their actions against each other and have reached a deal in which both sides have freedom to access and use technology covered by each other’s pre-2020 patents.

Mats Hovland Vikse, chief executive of AutoStore, said: “We are glad to have achieved a resolution that gives both companies opportunity and freedom to commercialise our extensive patent portfolios.

“This settlement resolves our differences and allows us to continue focusing on our respective business goals.”

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.”

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 both firms are allowed to continue to use and market their existing products without challenge of infringement of the other’s post-2020 patents.

It adds 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 company’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.