AutoStore Systems Inc., a Derry company that sells logistical robotic systems for warehouses and whose Norwegian parent launched a $1.8 billion initial public offering in Oslo on Oct. 25, is engaged in worldwide patent infringement litigation that has found its way into a federal court in New Hampshire.

“The robot wars,” as they’re dubbed in the technology press, are now being fought through two suits filed in U.S. District Court in Concord, both filed by Ocado Innovation, a United Kingdom firm that claims AutoStore stole its patented technology.

AutoStore says that it developed its technology on its own, and in another litigation claims that Ocado is the one doing the copying. Litigation is also ongoing in London, Germany, Virginia and before the U.S. International Trade Commission.

AutoStore, founded in 1996, says it has 20,000 robots in 650 installations in more than 40 countries at facilities owned by such companies as UPS, Volkswagen, Gucci, Crocs, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Thermo Fischer Scientific.

AutoStore has U.S. headquarters in Derry, which opened in January 2018 — a 20,000-square-foot facility used to store equipment and spare parts and to house customer, training and sales support along with a demonstration grid.

In its suit, Ocado, which works primarily in the grocery industry — Kroeger is one of its customers — characterizes AutoStore’s legacy red-line system as outdated and says the robots had difficulty passing things to each other in the most efficient manner. Ocado claims to have developed a solution with its “hive” technology. Ocado proposed they work together. AutoStore traveled to one of Ocado’s automated warehouses in the United Kingdom and later expressed interest, but then abruptly cut off discussions, according to the suit.

Then, in late 2020, AutoStore came out with its blackline robotic grid system and a software product called Router, seeming to be making a bid for the grocery market. Ocado claims that AutoStore’s system is similar to its hive technology. AutoStore thought the technologies were similar too, and filed a patent infringement claim against Ocado in U.K. high court before the U.S. International Trade Commission at the end of 2020.

In January, Ocado struck back in New Hampshire, claiming that AutoStore was infringing on Ocado patents. Ocado also filed an antitrust complaint in the Eastern District of Virginia in February and a complaint in the district courts of Mannheim and Munich in Germany in March. — BOB SANDERS