Ocado Group Plc lost the latest court clash with rival AutoStore Technology AG after a London judge refused to grant an injunction that would stop the use of certain information in a separate U.S. patent infringement case.
In an increasingly bitter dispute between the two companies that both provide automated grocery delivery systems, online grocer Ocado sought to restrain its Norwegian rival from referring to discussions they held regarding their patent disputes in 2018 at a key hearing at the U.S. International Trade Commission in August.
Judge Richard Hacon denied the interim injunction in the Wednesday ruling. The judge in Washington’s ITC “is better placed to decide what evidence should be admitted in his own court than is an English judge in an interim hearing.”
AutoStore and Ocado have been at loggerheads since October last year with a series of disputes over patent infringement in multiple jurisdictions. The heart of the matter is that AutoStore argues its warehouse system is the foundation of the technology used by Ocado and…
