Ocado shares soar further as it hails victory in legal battle with AutoStore
Ocado shares continue to gain momentum after UK victory in ongoing legal battle with AutoStore over robot patents
- The UK Supreme Court ruled in favor of Ocado last night
- Judge said Ocado had not infringed AutoStore patents with its warehouse robots
- Ocado shares are up 2% in Friday morning trading, up 20% since the start of the week
Ocado shares maintained recent momentum on Friday after the group hailed another victory in its ongoing legal battle with Norwegian rival AutoStore over robot patents.
A UK high court ruled in favor of Ocado on Thursday evening, agreeing that the company had not infringed AutoStore’s patents with its warehouse robots, which are designed to automatically pack store orders for delivery.
Ocado shares rose another 2 percent to 537.60p in morning trading on Friday, with the latest gain taking them 20 percent higher since the start of the week.
Ocado’s claims against AutoStore for infringement of Ocado’s intellectual property continue in Germany and New Hampshire
The latest decision follows Ocado’s victory over AutoStore in the US last year.
AutoStore’s claims against Ocado for infringement of its intellectual property continue in Germany and New Hampshire, USA.
The company hailed the “total” victory, saying: “Ocado has won the patent infringement case brought by AutoStore in the UK High Court by a large margin.
“His judge Hacon ruled that the Autostore patents were invalid and Ocado in any case did not infringe on them.”
Autostore alleged that Ocado had infringed six patents. But Ocado said that of these six patents, two were invalidated by the European Patent Office before a ruling was handed down, two were revoked by Autostore shortly before the hearing began and the remaining two patents were invalidated by Judge Hacon yesterday.
“Judge Hacon decided that even if he hadn’t invalidated these remaining patents, Ocado’s OSP was not infringing on them — nor were Ocado’s bots infringing the patents Autostore had withdrawn from the case,” Ocado added.
Ocado has two divisions: a technical division, which provides automated fulfillment centers and warehouses to its supermarket customers around the world, and a retail division.
This week, the group said its Marks & Spencer delivery joint venture, Ocado Retail, remained on track to return to profits as it posted a 3.4 percent increase in first-quarter sales despite “challenging” trading conditions.
The online grocer said there is no end to rising food prices, with customers continuing to curb their spending amid the cost crisis.
It saw average basket sizes fall 7.5 percent to 45 items in the first quarter, which was offset by an 8.3 percent increase in average selling prices due to rising food inflation, keeping total basket value flat.
Ocado revealed last month that intra-group losses widened from £177m in 2021 to £501m in 2022, with retail operations fluctuating to an underlying loss of £4m.